Exams ohh how i love them..NOT

EXAMSS!!!! i never seem to get away from them..year after year after year..seems like a never ending journey. Now you know why i haven't been updating my blog. i've been cooped up in my room. And as all of u know.. when i have exams, i REALLY get very stressed up. AND not to forget i make EVERYONE around me stressed out too. My parents and of course my lovely sister are so used to it by now that before i can tell them what's wrong they'll have answers to my problems
example: for my last exam i called home and dad picks up

ko: hello ( sounding all down)

Before i could say anything

dad: ko! i've got a stomach ache, i have a headache, i feel like vomiting, i'm going to fail , I can't do this anymore

U see my dad is a strong believer in reverse psychology.. and to tell u the truth..it did work..cause i just burst out laughing :)



Normally, i'll cook or bake when i get really stressed up but won't eat it after. But i haven't been doing much of either as there's no one to eat my lovely master pieces. I get into my 'moods' of either binge eating or not eating AT ALL. But for now i'm in my binging mood and just eat everything in sight especially chocolates. besides that, for those of u who know me well, u would know that i have weird cravings at weird times and guess what? It's worst during exams! i had instant noodles at 7am yesterday for breakfast. So people when you see me home in a week don't be surprise to see me with my tomato looking face!



i live with 2 other medical students and all of us are having exams at the same time..so u can imagine the house.The house never sleeps! when one sleeps at 3 am you can hear the other one in the shower getting ready to start her day. And not to forget , everyone is high on caffeine!


For all of you who are reading this and having exams too..good luck and you'll be needing this !


I'll end my post with this poem courtesy of Monica

Now I lay me down to study,
I pray the Lord I won't go nutty.
If I should fail to learn this junk,
I pray the Lord I will not flunk.

But if I do,don't pity me at all;
Just lay my bones down in the study hall.
Tell my teachers I did my best.
Then pile the books upon my chest.

Now I lay me down to rest,
And pray I'll pass tomorrow's test.
If I should die before I wake,
That's one less test I'll have to take.

- Unknown-

Mother's day dedication!

This post is dedicated to all the mothers who read my blog and especially to my mom!
I can't remember the last time my sister and i celebrated mother's day with our lovely mother. We've been away from home for so long :( And its always times like this that we miss home the
most.




























On Sunday, the celebration had to go on even though our special guest 'our mom' wasn't present. The day started off with the tradition- breakfast in bed. My sister and i made banana pancakes topped with melted hazelnut chocolate paste and had it all for ourselves *wink*




It was a bright and sunny day and a really good change compared to the cold gloomy weather we had the past week. And as i wrote in my old entry, we went APPLE PICKING!!!!

It was arranged by our malaysian medical student society in Mt Lofty. The scenic view on the way up Mt Lofty was breath taking. We headed up to the orchard in the afternoon.


The orchard had all the types of apples anyone could ever imagine. We broke up into little groups and headed out with buckets in our hands to pick the lovely apples.

We wandered through the 200 acre orchard,breathing the crisp fall air while eating and trying the apples off the trees. The best part it, you get to eat as many apples as you want and get to try it fresh off the tree!



Before we even picked our apples, we already had big plans for them..we made a list throughout the past week of lovely recipes that we could make.






















By the time we reached the end of the orchard, trust me all of us were sooo sick of apples..hehe We kept eating away and had to practice our quality control skills on the apples.

The tree's were not that tall, but there were ladders to pick the hard to reach ones. I've been strawberry , raspberry and of course picking our local malaysian fruits but never apple picking! It was a good experience.

After picking our apples, a few of us headed over to my house to have a dessert party and a catch up session.We've all been so busy in different hospitals and its so easy to lose touch with people. Guess what the main ingredients were in all our items...APPLES + LOVE.




We made the boys core the apples and cut them and we did the easy job of putting the ingredients together. We made a delicious apple pie, chocolate apple brownies, apple and cinnamon waffles and the spice apple cake again since everyone loved it the last time. I'll put up all the recipes soon when i have the time.


And of course all these sinful desserts were made specially for all our mother's back home in malaysia and for Mindi, Dubai.But were eaten up by us. Happy mother's Day Ma. We love you!

Instant clay pot chicken rice

This is yet another easy and quick meal. My final exam for my obstetrics and gynecology rotation is just around the corner. Therefore, with limited time on my hands for my meals and trying to eat healthy (i've been good k, been trying my best to avoid instant noodles and leaving that as my last resort) i decided to make 'clay pot chicken rice' but in the microwave.




Ingredients
2 breast fillets
1 1/2 cups rice
Vegetables of your choice
1 tsp oil garlic and ginger
2 tbs oyster sauce 2tbs soya sauce
1 tsp black pepper
2 eggs
2 cut red chilies
5 pieces of dried fish
Fried onions for garnishing



Start of by cooking your rice in the microwave on 'power high" for 15 minutes. Meanwhile, cut your chicken up into cubes. You can use any part of the chicken you like. My sister and i only like the taste and texture of breast fillets so that's what we use in our cooking.
















Cut your vegetables up too. I used mushrooms, broccoli and carrot.

Place 2 tsp of oil, garlic and ginger in a small bowel and power heat it for 1 minute. Add the garlic, chicken ,seasonings and your remaining ingredients into your rice and cook it for another 10 minutes. Add your egg , in the last 2 minutes before your rice finishes cooking. CABOOM ! your dinner is ready to be eaten.

i cheated a bit when i cooked this time. i'm quite fussy about my chicken being cooked really really well and without a chickeny(i don't even know if its a word) smell. If you know what i mean. Therefore, i precooked the chicken with the seasoning and then added it in.



Try it !

Apple Frenzy !!!!!

The theme for the week is ..*drum roll please* APPLES! I love apples.



They're soo crunchy,convenient and make good pick-up and run snacks. Did you know that almost half of the vitamin C content of an apple lies under its skin, so it’s good to eat the skin as well.We're going apple picking this sunday with our university's Malaysian Medical Student society.. Soo excited :) Even my sister who's not a medical student is coming.. So i foresee everyone in the house being so sick of apples by next week.




My equally 'crazy over food+food blogs+ food magazine' housemate, Monica and I were in a baking mood today. We had a few apples sitting in our fruit basket and we wanted to make way for the apples that we're going to pick on Sunday.

Even though we had a really long day in hospital today, our spiced apple cake just made our day!
I found this recipe last year when i got in to my 'apple mood' last year from winosandfoodies
Its soooo easy to make and it turned out soo moist and fluffy.

All you need to make this scrumptious spiced apple cake:

125 grams butter
225 grams cooked apple
1 cup sugar
1 egg
1 1/4 cups flour
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon each - nutmeg,allspice,salt
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 cup sultanas

Cut the apples into small cubes. Melt the butter and add the apples and sugar in a big pot.
Cook it till it caramelizes and let it cool for about 5 minutes.


Meanwhile, Sift all the dry ingredients and add your egg to it. Next, pour your dry ingredients into your cooked apple.









Add sultanas to the mixture.I omitted the sultanas as i'm not a big fan of it and added crush almonds to it.

Bake at 16oC for about 50 minutes.Sprinkle with icing sugar to serve and ice cream. Everyone in the house is on a so called 'diet' so a BIG NO to ice cream for us :(

One person can make a difference

“One person can make a difference” John Fitzgerald Kennedy quotes (American 35th US President (1961-63)

I really like this quote, and think it’s true. Think about it, Mother Teresa whose primary task was to love and care for those persons nobody was prepared to look after started off on her own and made a difference.

The quote was reiterated last night when I watched the biggest (with a production budget due north of $250 million) and longest (clocking in at 139 minutes) and quite possibly the capper of a trilogy featuring the current talent lineup, "Spider-Man 3. Just like Superman, he saved many lives and made a difference on his own.

Anyway, back to reality, i personally feel one person can make a difference. When you’re down and a close friend lends a shoulder to cry on or even just a few philosophical phrases from your parents can brighten up your day. A cup of coffee and cake and lots of gossip with a girlfriend can turn your day 360 degrees around.

Listening to your mom or dad laugh over the phone or even say they’re really proud of you can make you all warm and fuzzy inside..now u can’t deny that.

It may sound bizarre but even a stranger can make a difference to you. When you’re walking down the gloomy road after along day at work and feel that you’re all alone in a foreign world and all of a sudden a passerby gives you a warm smile..it really does wonders!

What about things? Hmmph.. I sure know what makes me happy and almost every girl…Its definitely NOT men..its CHOCOLATE!

Chocolate is cheaper than therapy and you don’t need an appointment! I can’t imagine life without chocolate..its like a beach without water.

Another thing that makes me really happy and never fails to brighten up my day when I’m stressed out is the market. Only dry ones of course!

The market here is a cornucopia in everyway. The wide spectrum of colours of fresh fruits and vegetables.

People from all walks of life walking around.

Kids with their faces painted playing hide and seek in between the stalls or just tugging onto their mother’s skirts and good music playing in the background by unknown musicians who have big dreams of making it big one day.

The scene of old lovely couples walking down the aisle holding hands choosing fresh grapes and strawberries which has been part of their routine for maybe the past 30 years together never fails to intrigue me.

And not to forget smell of fresh bread lingering in the air and familiar smells of char keoy teow when you walk past the food court. Aahh how can anyone not like the market.

so wat makes you happy ?

Simple and quick chicken rolls

After being on call for 24hours for my O&G rotation, my whole system was screwed. My poor little tummy was doing back flips throughout the night. I was hyper though when i got home in the morning. A little adrenalin from the pregnant ladies in labour sneakily sipped into me i guess. i felt great and felt like i could go on for another 24 hours without sleep. However, once my heavy head hit my large fluffy pillow, i was in zzz land faster than my preparation of my 2 min instant noodles. When the little princess woke up all she wanted was a yummy but quick dinner!

My freezer was over packed with chicken and i decided to make a simple chicken roll.
Ingredients

-A packet of Lebanese bread rolls
-2 chicken breast
-2 table spoons of 'tikka masala'
-2 tablespoons of fresh yogurt
-lettuce
-salsa dip

Just marinate the chicken breast with the tikka masala and yogurt for about 10 minutes and grill it. I have a grilling hot pan which i used and grilled it for about 10minutes.

i was in the mood for something with a little spice kick and used tikka masala but you can grill your chicken anyway you like it.

Next , cut the chicken into thin strips and put aside. Spread a little salsa and yogurt onto your Lebanese bread and decorate it with fresh lettuce and tomatoes or what ever u wish like adding and not to forget your chicken.

















The hardest part of this roll is actually rolling it up. A little tip that i have picked up along the way is to roll is up in foil and it STAYS!



I'm a really clumsy person and the kind that can not eat a proper yiros without half of it ending up on the floor and this works miraculously.




I can't eat my dinner without vegetables and decided to use up my asparagus . I just pan-fried it with olive oil and pepper and it went well with my rolls.

These rolls are really easy to make and a good pick-up and run lunch meal. Try adding cheese and grilling it with your favourite filling..yummylicious is all i can say.

Cocktails Galore

Have you ever wondered how cocktails came about? I was just really curious and did a little delving around and found out that the term "cocktail" was first used in the village of Elmsford in Weschester County, New York after a local bar ran out of stirrers and resorted to use a cock's tail feathers to stir the drink and that’s how the name cocktail came about. Funny ain’t it

My dear friend in med, hooi wen decided to celebrate her birthday and catch up with us over cocktails last Friday at a cocktail bar called Distill.

Distill has a classy lounge atmosphere with superior cocktails I must say. It’s very chilled and conveniently situated on Rundle street and is well known for as an ‘after work stop’ especially among the young doctors from RAH. So single girls out there who want a handsome young doctor, you know where to go now ;)

They have a wide ,very exquisite range of cocktails. The funny thing about the menu was how they had little tiny prints under each drink about how so called healthy the main ingredient of the cocktail is. Example : Passion fruit is high in vitamin A, which helps vision and building strong and healthy bones.

My first drink was called Del Mar. I really love anything to do with passion fruit and when I saw this on the menu—I HAD to have it .After taking a sip of the cocktail—an image of having a refreshing cocktail under the Caribbean sky and enjoying the lively entertainment in the popular Aruba clubs and bars came to my mind..If only I was in the Caribbean’s and not in Lil ‘old Adelaide .

And yes.. it is really a flaming passion fruit pulp and not my camera playing up. The flame is to caramelize the sugar placed in it and you’re suppose to tip it over to add a little sweet effect to the drink and trust me you really do need what ever sweetness you can get.

Another one of my favorites was a cocktail called Viper room. I’m not a strawberry person. Well let s put it this way, I love fresh strawberries but hate anything else with it for example strawberry ice cream or sweets. This drink contained red bull, black vodka, strawberry liquor and mulberry jam! It sounds like a weird combo right?.. but it tasted really nice! I strongly recommend it if u’re a strawberry lover

All in all it was a great night out after a stressful week in the hospital. OH and the bartenders were quite cute too J

A point to remember girls, cocktails can make you high very fast if u have a low tolerance rate- certified by my dad ( I called home the next day to tell dad all about it and the first thing he said was- BE careful with cocktails k it seems harmless and refreshing but its NOT )