Vanity vanity, all is vanity

My office is right across the chair of soc psych's office. Students stream in and out, eager to catch the pearls of wisdom, keen to establish an illustrative and fruitful career of research.

"I want to do this"
"I have this idea"
"I think this"
"I think that"

sigh.
Outside this safe ivory tower, people are dying, some child is suffering, and we look at self esteem. Canadians (I'm not picking on them, it's just that I'm in Canada) are shocked when you suggest the world isn't that fair, that democracy isn't necessarily good, that there is discrimination even in this psych department. Do we intentionally blind ourselves so that we can continue to believe that what we are doing is in someway meaningful, and beneficial? So that we can turn off the news when that uncomfortable feeling hits the pit of our stomach? Do we really believe that research on implicit self esteem is more than just a satisfaction of curiousity, a means by which we can feel intellectually superior? Do we think that the world will stop turning when we stop researching?

Words. May my words be few.
God forgive us for thinking that equality with God is something that we can grasp.

Party cake

Hi,
So I made the flourless chocolate cake.
One word - deeeelicious!
:)
You definitely need to refrigerate it for long (I refrigerated it overnight) as it's very soft and the refrigeration makes it denser. It tastes like a little like mousse.
I used Lindt 70% chocolate. I thought that the parchment paper wasn't necessary because I used mini pans..but oh IT IS! The cake is too soft to come out well if you don't use parchment paper. The first one tore in half and so I ate it. hehehe. Want not waste not right? :)

I'm really happy with this recipe. There was no problem with scrambled eggs (it may be because my butter mix wasn't boiling) and the eggs were at room temperature.

Anyway, delicious! It was so good that one of the girls who is on lent right now, took a piece home to freeze so that she can eat it after lent. wahhahaha.

cinnabo

Hey,
I haven't made bread in quite a while..so I decided to make cinnamon raisin oatmeal bread. I added 1/3 cup of sourdough and I soaked the steel cut oats overnight. Hm..I think I kept to the recipe pretty closely - except I halved it.

rating: mmmmm...very tasty.
Different from the previous cinnamon swirl I made, but nonetheless, the multigrain flour+oats gave it a really nice texture and flavour (honey too!). It was also quite moist - probably from the sourdough.

So all in all, very good. Mom - you are coming soon!! Then you can have fresh bread every other day..I don't know how much bread you can eat..heheh, but you'll have to try all the good recipes.

Anyway, my friend's surprise b'day party is soon..so exciting!! She thinks I'm not coming. hehehe. :D

Jacqui is back in town - well, not in town but at least back from the field. Continue to commit her to God in prayer.
Oh, she might be coming to Canada in August! WOOHOOOO. I'm spoilt and God is good.

Signing off,

enlightened..

Hello. It's sunday now. The days pass too slowly but too quickly. It's almost the end of the term. The new/potential grad students are visiting and I'm nearly done with my first year! Praise God.
What are ideas? If I think of an idea - (which at that point is "non-existent" and consists of a bunch of neurons firing), why am I so possessive of that idea?
Let me want not the things of this world, count everything as lost and Christ gain. I don't want to be competitive in that way, to have to be better than others, to constantly compare. I want to do what I do, to do my best in what I do, and do it unto the glory of God.

Aunty Lily made fatt koh. She has a steamer, I don't. I have a pot..and nothing can fit into it. So I made fatt koh in a cup.

It was really tasty. Mom, you should try this recipe. The soda was good - and the cake didn't split to a spongy half and a dense half. It's almost like the brown steamed sponge cake.

On Friday, my two classmates and I went for dinner and jazz at the PI. Dione Taylor was this month's feature act. Wow. She was really good. Very nice range, and very versatile style.
The food was pretty good.
I try to keep my bill to 22 dollars so my total + tax+tip isn't >30.
So anyway, I ordered a main (salmon), and a latte. My friends ordered dessert, to be brought out during intermission. Dan brought out 3 desserts! And I told him I didn't order it, but I'll take it anyway. Jokingly I said, it should be complimentary. Anyway, when the bill came, he gave me a discount for my latte and dessert! That was nice of him. :)

Kristin's surprise party is on Thursday. I think I'm going to make the flourless chocolate cake that cream puff and her friends made. Stay tune!!

Final collage and my cheche.

I heart cheche

Sad and Sick..no more. :)

I woke up today feeling sick. However, I had already made plans to eat dimsum with Christine from church.
I stayed away from the fried stuff and tried to eat less meat.
I told mommy I was not feeling well - she said drink lemon ginger tea, and eat porridge
I told cheche I was not feeling well - she said take cough exporant.
Lol!!

Anyway, 10 cups of tea later, a bowl of soup, 1 tbsp of cough exporant, 2 lozenges, and...an apple dessert later..I'm feeling better. heehee.

I took it easy today...very easy. :P

Here is the pot of sup tulang! mmm. oh mom, can you buy more of the adabi soup rempah? Sedapnya! really good. Yeah, it's not as healthy as the potent chinese medicine soup - but it's tasty and nice.
I made the stock with chicken bones and leek. Then I chopped up ginger, challots and garlic. Technically you are suppose to use the mortar and pestle and grind them. Tapi, cooking I tak begitu changgih lah. So I just chopped them up best as I could.
Masih SSEEEEEDDAAAAAAPPPP!!!!!


So that was my day. Miss you guys. This week was a little lonelier, maybe because Emma and Alexis came and went. But Vanessa was talking about coming up to visit. That would be cool too. And mommy is coming up. So that's very cool! However, the pain comes when everyone leaves. :S
Sometimes it's easier to just retreat than to see people and then have them leave.
Anyway, for now, I'll just look forward to my visitors! :)

Sesame seed and red bean

I made sesame balls!
I saw this on Anita's blog and I thought, "why not?" :)
Last wednesday I went to the worse dimsum restaurant ever! But Danielle wanted to go, so a group of us went. Anyway, we had really oily bleh tasting sesame balls.
:S
So when I saw the recipe, I was inspired! Ok. Maybe not inspired, but excited. Hehe.
And I had red bean paste that I'm trying to finish.
Without further ado - sesame red bean balls! :D

P.s. The sesame seeds look so cute!!!!