When desperate and lazy...

One of those days again when i'm home alone and ever so lazy to go out just to buy food for one or cook. Opened the cupboard and i found this! So apa lagi...hentam je laaa.

I'm not really a fan of instant food BUT just tried it anyway cause it's so simple. Basically all you need is this:

Some milk and butter and that packet is the cheese sauce that comes together in the box. Just boil some water and toss in the macaroni. Wait for 5-10 minutes or until it is cooked and then drain. Toss back into the pan and return to heat and then add the cheese, butter and milk. Stir till all are incorporated and then tadaa!

Mac & Cheese... on a scale of 10 i'll give it a 5 la...because it was edible and taste was just okay. I only ate 1/4 and was done with it already. Kept the rest for family when later i added some chicken meat and more cheese sauce. (from the huge can i brought back from sabah remember?) heheheee...

Strawberry Fields Cafe

This is a makan-makan place you will have to go either with family or friends. It's relaxed, has a wide variety of food choices from local to western and it's affordable. So far i have only heard of this place in two locations, 1 in Taipan USJ and one more in PJ town.

One night, miss indu, kim and i decided to have dinner in the PJ branch cause it's nearer to where we lived and also it was a very sudden decision to go there. Was because we were coming from Midvalley Megamall and federal highway was just across the road.

You will find that it takes awhile to decide what to eat because they have like 100+++ over choices. Their most popular dish however is anything with butter cream. They have butter cream pasta, chicken, rice, fish...you name it...just the sound of butter cream....mmmmmmmm and their trademark is they add curry leaves to the butter cream dish for flavour instead of using western herbs/leaves.

Therefore, indu took the butter cream spaghetti with chicken. Very very nice. It shows why it is their most popular dish there.

Kim had nasi lemak. Comes with a fried egg instead of hard boil which is good for her cause she went on and on by saying how much she wants "telor mata". Very generous with the peanuts and anchovies. Comes with a piece of chicken rendang.

And i had tomyam fried kuey teow. It wasn't as spicy as i thought it would be. Maybe i should have asked for extra spicey. To me it tasted like a good char kuey teow penang style, not so much of thai tomyam. But indu and kim had a taste of it and they said there is like a teeny bit of thai flavour so i guess there is. Maybe my tastebuds were on holiday that day.

Overall, the portions here are hugantic...none of us finished our food. We went like 3/4 way and could faint already. (note that we are fairly good eaters)
Satisfying, reasonable, nice atmosphere and many choices. Will definately be back to try more!

Birthday Cake!

Yesss, this is the cake i made for Z's birthday. Doesn't look like much but that's because it was only meant for him and also the fact that he's got loads of other cakes i'm sure. Z's not a real cake enthusiast and so i decided to stick to the basics which is a rich buttery vanilla cake complete with royal frosting. Mmmm are you drooling yet?
The cake turned out good BUT i think could be better with a little bit more oven time. This caused the texture to turn out incredibly moist. I know that may seem to be a good thing but not for this cake. I prefer to feel a little texture from the cake rather than a melt in your mouth experience. But taste is fantastic :) As for the frosting, it's my first time ever trying out royal and i don't think i quite got it yet. The frosting never hardened! Taste was there, texture was there, colour was right but it just didn't hardened, it stayed soft even till the next day. Anyone knows why?

Rich Buttery Vanilla Cake

250g butter, softened
3 tsp vanilla extract
11/2 cup castor sugar
3 eggs
13/4 cup self-raising flour
1/3 cup plain flour
3/4 cup milk

1.Preheat oven to moderately slow 160C. Grease a deep 20cm square cake pan, line base and sides of pan with baking paper bringing paper 5cm above the sides of the pan.
2.Beat the butter, extraxt and sugar in a small bowl with an electric mixer until light and fluffy. Add eggs one at the time, beating until just combined between additions. Transfer mixture to a large bowl and fold in combined sifted flours and milk in two batches. Spread mixture into prepared pan.
3.Bake for about 50 mins (or longer) until cooked when tested. Stand cake in pan for 5 minutes before inverting onto a wire rack to cool.
4.Cut into desired shape if required, in my case i used a huge heart shape cookie cutter and just press through.
5.Frost with your choice of frosting.

Source: Adapted from Women's Weekly Magazine (date unknown)

I'm not writing down the frosting recipe as it didn't turn out how it should. I'll definately be making this butter cake again and hopefully with a better recipe for royal frosting.