Waiting for Thursday

Wake up in the morning feeling like J Lopez...

That's right. Or at least, I woke up this morning feeling like what I think Jennifer Lopez feels like: Amazing.

I received an email from a friend about doing wedding cakes for a wedding that she's planning. We're still in negotiating mode, so I'm not entirely sure if it's confirmed yet. However, I am really excited about this gig! Cupcakes, cute ruffled cake in adorable wedding colours and well... who doesn't love wedding decor, right? Spent the morning discussing wedding cake designs and colours with her, and there's a chance that I may be doing another wedding too...

*fingers crossed*

I'm also going to be on leave for the next few days as I'm flying off to Miri for my cousin's wedding. Definitely can't wait for that as mum and I have sorted out a spa day for ourselves, and I'm going to find a way to visit Boat Club for their amazing margaritas and sunsets.

Before we get on to my recipes today... I have a random tidbit to share with you. You see, I've developed a rather bad habit:

I think it's starting to get out of control... I'm obsessed with coming up with random names, and a few of the ones you see in the picture above are surprises my friends and colleagues have given me on the days that I've been too lazy/prissy to walk out in the heat (as you can imagine, those days are plenty where we live).

I'm running out of names to use though, and have resorted to using some rather unremarkable names. Give me your name lists, friends!

I was going to share a savoury recipe with you today, but upon reviewing the pictures, I realize they're really dark and grainy, so I'm going to have to re-do those before sharing the recipe. So for today, I dug up an old recipe that I haven't shared:

Orange Chocolate Chip cookies

• 3 1/4 cups all purpose flour
• 2 tsp cornstarch
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 cup unsalted butter, softened
• 1 cup caster sugar
• 1 cup packed light brown sugar
• 2 large eggs
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 1 tsp orange extract
• 1 tbsp orange zest
• 2 cups semi-sweet chocolate chips

1. Preheat the oven to 180C and line your baking trays with parchment paper
2. Sift the flour, cornstarch, baking powder, baking soda and salt into a medium bowl and set aside
3. Cream the butter and sugars until light and fluffy, then beat in the eggs one at a time
4. Beat in the vanilla, orange extract, and zest
5. Stir in the chocolate chips
6. Spoon up a dollop of batter onto the baking trays, 2 inches apart and bake for 10-12 minutes, or until the edges turn golden. Then cool on the tray for 5 minutes before allowing the cookies to cool completely on a wire rack
7. Serve warm with a glass of cold milk. Yum! 

xx Nabs

Green Tea Chocolate Chip cookies

I'm constantly humming Christmas carols, there's always something green or red in my daily outfits, I start re-watching films like The Santa Clause, Love Actually, The Holiday, Home Alone, Elf, and Scrooged. I start reading lists of things that happened in 2011 on the internet, laugh at some of them, wrinkle my nose and sniff at some of my bigger regrets, scoff at the shoddy list of resolutions I made this year. All of this can only mean one thing: December is here!

This time last year I was a new associate in the firm, starting to get my sealegs and also planning a trip with my cousin and a bunch of friends to Langkawi for New Years. It was fun, we made good memories and I would probably definitely do it all over again.

This year, I'm looking at a limited number of leave days I can take... mostly due to the fact that there are three weddings happening next year, one of which involves a 23 hour flight to the other side of the world. I need to save up my leave days, carry some forward and plan this very, very carefully.

But most of all, I just want to be out of the city when the clock strikes 12. I hate new years eve, hate the expectation that comes with it, and how everyone makes such a bloody big deal of us growing yet another year closer to our death. So whether or not I end up going on holiday with my family, or escaping to a beach island somewhere with a friend, or end up stuck in the city... I'm going to do whatever the hell I wanted to do regardless of whether or not anybody else wants to do it with me.

One of those things might be baking.

Speaking of which, in the spirit of Christmas, I thought to make something green! Green Tea Chocolate Chip cookies, to be exact, inspired by Starbucks Green tea chocolate chip frapp. I figured it would be easy enough to do, and adapted a recipe which I have been dying to try from Smitten Kitchen. I only made minor tweaks, but in future I may add a 1/4 teaspoon of colouring to get a brighter green out of the batter.

Green Tea Chocolate Chip cookies

adapted from Smitten Kitchen's Chewy Choc-Chip cookies recipe

• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 2 heaped teaspoons green tea powder (or to taste, add more if you like)
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 3/4 cup unsalted butter, melted
• 1 cup packed brown sugar
• 1/2 cup white sugar
• 1 egg
• 1 egg yolk
• 1 tbsp vanilla extract
• 1/4 cup milk
• 1 cup bittersweet chocolate chips

1. Preheat the oven to 180C, and line cookie sheets with parchment paper
2. Sift together the flour, green tea powder, baking soda and salt in a medium bowl and set aside
3. In a large bowl, with an electric mixer, beat the melted butter and sugars at medium speed until well blended
4. Add the egg + egg yolk and vanilla, beat until fluffy then incorporate the milk, continue to beat until ingredients have incorporated
5. Combine the sifted ingredients into the wet mixture in two additions
6. With a spatula, manually stir in the chocolate chips (the original recipe called for 2 cups, but I like a lower cookie to chips ratio)
7. Scoop up teaspoon-fulls of batter and drop them on the cookie sheets, 2 inches apart. Try to manipulate them into ball-shapes at least, so they don't go oval on you
8. Bake for 8-10 minutes, or until the edges are slightly toasted. Allow to cool on the sheets for 5 minutes before moving them to a cooling rack

I have to say that I'm quite happy with this recipe, and also the way they look with all my Christmas decorations. Can't wait to try another Christmassy recipe!

x Nabs

[note: Photos from a second batch, added a drop of green Wilton colouring gel and an extra tsp of green tea powder]

Classic Chocolate Chip Cookie

Everybody has a go-to chocolate chip cookie recipe, the one they can whip up in 10 minutes from memory and is the favourite snack for a rainy Sunday afternoon with the family, or even alone with milk and a box-set of DVDs.

Here's mine:

• 2 1/4 cup all-purpose flour
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 cup butter (room temperature)
• 1 1/2 cup brown sugar (tightly packed)
• 2 eggs
• 2 tsp vanilla (that's what the recipe says, but I usually pour in triple the amount stated)
• 2 cups chocolate chips

1. Preheat oven to 170 degrees Celsius
2. In a medium bowl, mix flour, baking soda and salt. Set it aside.
3. In a bigger bowl, beat butter and sugar until well blended (the aim is to get a smooth consistency, where you can hardly trace the sugar grains)
4. Beat in eggs and vanilla (be liberal with your vanilla, don't you just love the smell?)
5. Optional step: add a splash of milk to the mix
6. Add the flour mixture in 2 additions (this is so you don't clog up your mixer)
7. Stir in the chocolate chips
8. Using a mini ice-cream scoop or a spoon (I usually use two teaspoons) drop the dough onto baking tray (lined with parchment paper) in the size of your choice
9. Bake for 10 minutes, or until it's a light golden brown around the edges but still slightly soft when you poke it with a finger in the middle
10. Leave to cool on a wire rack, watch yourself cos these will burn your tongue if you don't wait!

Yield: depending on the sizes you make. I've made 100 per batch of small cookies, about an inch in diameter, whereas about 50 larger, softer cookies (yum!)

You can also choose to mix in other fillings. I've substituted the chocolate chips with butterscotch morsels, dried blackcurrants, raisins, etc. Just have fun with these, they're happy cookies and trust me, people can definitely taste when cookies were baked by a happy person ;)

xx NA