Daring Kitchen (Oct 2016): Horse Roll

I can’t believe I missed the posting date for this (27th) – I was looking forward to and couldn’t wait to post about it!

I joined the Daring Kitchen last month and received my first challenge this month. The rule is that a challenge is issued at the start of the month and all the members have to post their attempt at the challenge attempt on the 27th of the month.

Korena from Korena in the Kitchen set the challenge in October and got everyone to make decorated Swiss rolls. (Hers look incredibly pretty.)

…And what a challenge it was. I had been hoping for something a little bit more familiar (like…bread) but I guess the whole point of joining these challenges is to try something new.

Making a cake is certainly more fiddly to me than baking bread, and it felt like an endless step by step process. But at the end of it, I think I managed to produce something half-decent.

A horse roll, in honour of the Mongolian horses I love (especially “my” horse!) and who really love rolling on the grass. :p

It is a chocolate sponge made with Korena’s recipe (with the addition of cocoa), although I reduced the sugar by a little bit. My house was utterly devoid of any cream or even milk, so I had to look for alternative recipes for the filling. Luckily we had some cream cheese lying around, and I found a recipe for a cream cheese filling. I added chopped walnuts, raisins/sultanas and chocolate to the filling.

I was not very good at rolling, and the roll also got a little squished/deformed as it was chilling in the fridge, so there isn’t a very noticeable roll. It turned out to be pretty tasty though. 😀

But in terms of aesthetics, I rather prefer how the baking paper turned out after peeling it from the cake… rather like a piece of cave art.

I’m still really happy with how it turned out though. I think I still much prefer baking bread, but I enjoyed the challenge and I’m looking forward to the next one!

Bread

I thought I would post about one of my current distractions – baking bread (which, irrelevantly but interestingly, is the total opposite of breaking bad).

I got interested in bread only because I thought that it was something I might enjoy, having had no prior experience with it. (Currently having the same thoughts about wood working…) So I picked up a book from the library and gave it a go. My first attempt wasn’t too bad – it was a 100% whole wheat loaf. But neither the process nor the outcome felt like something I would be addicted to.

And then a whole other set of circumstances got me sucked in entirely.

First, my dad started subscribing to Netflix, where I watched the documentary series “Cooked”. One of the episodes related to bread and specifically, baking using sourdough instead of commercial yeast. That reminded me of something Wan Ting had mentioned to me (about how she only used sourdough for bread baking, because it’s better) but which I had shelved in the back of my mind. And then, I went after the book on which the documentary was adapted. After reading material after material about sourdough (and also feeling entirely disgusted by today’s commercial practices) I couldn’t stop reading and watching various posts and videos on sourdough methods and recipes.

And so my first attempt at sourdough:

Total bread failure (TBF).

I could not figure out what was wrong at the time, but the dough did not rise, and neither did it rise when in the oven. I only figured out later that it must have been my sourdough starter that was the problem – it was emitting the most sickly smell for days on end, and there must have been an excess of bacteria and insufficient yeast in that colony.

After many days of frustration, somehow it all worked out. I can’t quite remember whether I decided to make a new starter afresh, or whether I chucked the old one in the fridge, or tried a new starter out of the old one, or a combination of all of the above. Long story short, I now have 3 tubs of yeast population in the fridge, probably too much for someone who bakes only 2-3 times a month.

Since the TBF, I have had many more successes (with a smattering of minor failures):

From left to right, top down: walnut bread (yeasted) (taking a break from sourdough attempts), my 2nd and successful sourdough loaf, a whole wheat sourdough loaf, a pumpkin and walnut sourdough loaf, another wholewheat sourdough loaf, a rather badly shaped but still delicious sourdough challah, a better shaped and delicious sourdough challah, mini pizzettes (yeasted), and whole wheat croissants (yeasted).

(I have a few other attempts recorded in my old phone, which I have yet to upload.)

I’m itching to try yet another new loaf soon. 🙂

Waterlilies (WIP)

A progress shot taken just yesterday on a painting I’ve been working on (still not finished after a 2nd session!):

I’m not doing too well on this blog, am I? I will now make it up with more words than usual!

In my purported but not quite valid defence, I have quite a few more life distractions now. One big, unhealthy distraction is the new phone that I just got a few months ago… As my friends are well aware now, encouraging me to get a “smartphone” was not a great idea at all because the only things I use it for are (a) games and (b) reading ASOIAF metas. (What are metas? Let’s not get into that because I am already a big enough nerd as it is.)

I also have other, healthier obsessions though. For one thing, I got into bread baking. What really hooked me was when I started getting into sourdough. It was so difficult to get the hang on at first – my family had to deal with multiple tubs of growing yeast colonies – but once the first loaf succeeded I just couldn’t stop. I’m also growing a mini garden of indoor plants – we currently have little tomato, chilli and coriander saplings in little pots. We also have some onions, and the shoots went into garnishing some fried rice tonight (Mba said that we have real organic food now, haha).

I’m also excited now that guitar lessons are finally caught up to my current playing ability, so every lesson is much more challenging and interesting. (I hope we can sneak in some non-classical songs to learn.)

I suppose I’ve also been not entirely successful with healthily distracting myself from work sometimes (largely because I get into the unhealthy distractions, and then I don’t have time to finish my work, etc).

I guess since this blog is meant to celebrate life’s little distractions, I will post more pictures of my other exploits in future.

Not-progress chart

Something from 2009 which I just recently uncovered:

So these were characters that I used to draw pretty often… One is a wizard, and the other is an assassin (because, Rurouni Kenshin ftw). I had a storyline going for the latter, though incomplete, and for a long time it was my dream to turn that story into a comic. Luckily I’m a fervent note-taker and hoarder. Ha.

Then, something from recently:

Ted and Jude, who else.

On a sidenote, it seems like I turn to drawing (only) when most of everything else sucks. Though in a way I’m grateful that I have at least that, the last bastion when everything else is, or seems to be, crumbling.

A “thing” that online artists do is to upload “progress charts” where they show something from several years ago compared to current work. Usually the difference is pretty astounding (otherwise there’s no point uploading it, really). So this is a not-progress chart, because not much has changed, even when it has.

 

Winter is coming.

Finally, something recent! \o/

Last week, in the midst of closing submissions hell, I decided to stick it to the man and use the office scanner to scan in my new-ish doodles. This one is from late 2014 / early this year… when I was still in the midst of my ASOIAF / GoT obsession. (I still like it of course, but I’m no longer walking around with my nose buried in the book.)

Decided to give it a little snazz too… pleasantly surprised that I still sort of knew how to use Photoshop!!

Almost forgotten things

I have 2 favourite kinds of holidays.

One is where I jump out of bed every morning and get out and just keep walking on and on from one place to another, and crash when I come back at night (and repeat). This is why my trip to Japan last year is still one of my favouritest holidays to date. The other kind is where I just sit down in peace in front of the laptop, with a notebook etc and do whatever I want to do for hours on end.

I’m currently having the latter. I cannot describe in words, the sheer bliss of having a whole uninterrupted day in front of the computer. (I’m such a nerd…) I was looking at some of my old folders which was a treasure trove of nostalgia, with some hidden gems. Looking back at how much time and dedication I put into my online life, I guess I shouldn’t be surprised at how bad I am at making real-life friends now. T_T

There is one thing that is disturbing my peace of mind slightly… I found out that one of my JC schoolmates, who was my guitar club conductor, is on the AirAsia flight that went missing this morning. So here is praying that the flight managed to land, and all passengers are safe.

From a longgg time ago (these used to be among my favourite drawings, and I still like them even now):

  

 

I have actually been drawing some new things recently… just have not scanned them yet! *defensive*

Bear with me

 

I really like bears, no matter how much you tell me they are not as funny in real life.

I promise I’ll draw something new for my next post! T_T Maybe I’ll use the office scanner. #minorrebel

Gangsters with big lips, and laundry

I am quite determined to have at least ONE post in 2013, so here it is:

 

The top doodle is about my love of doing laundry. I mean, it is still a chore, but whenever I am travelling overseas, nothing quite beats the domestic joy of having freshly-laundered clothes that I washed myself. There is just a strange sense of satisfaction that comes with it. Also, I love the smell of freshly-laundered clothes. Also, I like the word “freshly-laundered”.

I also like the idea of this gangster biker chick with big lips and her whole attitude is just, whatever. I could imagine her smoking and flicking the ashes on any passerby with a douche-y face she doesn’t like. That’s who I want to be in my next life (the chick, not the passerby with douche-y face).

I need to start doodling again! Not the easiest thing with a full time job that tends to consume your whole life.

Travellator dream

From earlier this year:

I had a dream one day about travellators. I don’t remember much except that it was like a video game setting and I had to get someplace/complete something and it involved going on a mega-cool travellator that was super fast and I had to jump on and my shoes had an awesome spark-thingy and I had to lean forward in the direction I was going. I didn’t know/don’t remember what I was doing exactly but the part about going on the travellator kept recurring. So when I woke up I had to draw this girl in the sneakers and the dress that I remembered from the dream.

I wish I remember more of my dreams and in greater detail.

Freak Fish

From 2011 I think?

 

Fish are some of my favourite animals… and the funnier-looking, the better. I probably started doodling this lonely Freak Fish after watching a TV program about the “Chinese fish” invasion in the US… (the real name of the fish is the snakehead). It is a fish with some ferocious fangs, that attacks humans, and can actually survive and crawl/wriggle out of water at least for a while. I even entertained the thought of having one as a pet, because (1) it can attack humans, and (2) I can walk it on a leash. 😎 Alas, so far no one has considered my idea as even remotely feasible.

Mr. Freak Fish however is not violent at all. He just has some scary-looking teeth but is gentle and a vegetarian. Think Edward Scissorhands, as a fish.