Captured by Canon 550D

Just like last year, I went to eat BBQ steamboat with a bunch of friends. We had steamboat at Swan Teem BBQ Steamboat 双天自助铁板火锅城. I didn’t eat much as I easily get full when eating steamboat. It was glad to gather with friends at end of the year.

Photo by siawgu.com

Let’s see what kind of new year resolutions I have this year:

1. Keep fit. I wanna get back in shape!! I want to continue my Slimming Project.
2. Focus more on my blogs as much as I spent time on Facebook.
3. Figure out how to increase my online revenue.
4. Get a baking oven. I wanna learn and have fun with baking. [one of my new year resolutions from year 2010 which I did not achieve.]
5. Hangout more with my Canon G11.

I really hope I can achieve all of them this year!

By the way, today is also A.P.P.L.E’s 5th year anniversary. Oh wow! I’ve been in the blogging community for 5 years, yet my blog has not reach 1000 blog posts. It’s time to move on.

Happy 2012 and may all of you have a blessed and prosperous year ahead!

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Ingredients:

• Rice (preferable better quality ones)
• Shallot (sliced)
• Ginger (julienne)
• Dried mushroom (sliced, soak in water before slicing)
• Salt
• Sesame oil
• Cooking oil
• Water

Tools and utensils:

• Rice cooker
• Wok / Frying pan
• Spatula

Once you have all the ingredients and tools ready, you can start cooking. Yay!

Steps:

1. Heat the wok. If you don’t have a wok, frying pan will do (but it’s a bit difficult to sauté later).

2. Pour in a little amount of cooking oil, add in ginger and shallot, sauté respectively.

3. Until you can sense the fragrance from the ginger and shallot, add in the dried mushroom.

4. Add in the rice (uncooked) to the wok, sauté together with the ingredients. Just to mix well, so you don’t need cook them in the wok for too long.

Hint: Remember to wash the rice before cooking.

5. Pour the mixture (rice and ingredients) to the rice cooker.

6. Add water (depends on the amount of rice you are going to cook). You will need to add a little more (just a little more, not too much) water than usual, as the dried mushrooms will absorb water.

7. Add in a pinch of salt and sesame oil to taste into the rice cooker. Stir well. Make sure the (mixture) surface is flat, or else you might get an outcome of some part uncooked.

8. Switch on your rice cooker and let it do the rest of the job.

Bon appétit!

It can be served with other dishes or just the fragrant rice itself. It’s your choice.

Well, one optional ingredient which you can try is to add in chicken. Chicken is a good combination. Remember to sauté the chicken with other ingredients before setting it to cook in the rice cooker

Tips: Before slicing the dried mushrooms, soak them into water to soften them. You may use the water when cooking the rice later. This can enhance the fragrance.

This post is specially dedicated to Edgar. Hope he enjoys reading it and tries this recipe some day.

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The S.O.X. ALL-STARS HOOPS is a 5-on-5 basketball tournament with teams from various schools in Malaysia competing for the title of champion. Filled with awesome skills and moves, the competition is a treat for basketball fans! And the entire event is fully sponsored by Celcom.

Last year’s All-Stars hoops event was a success. Here are some photos for the past event.

If you have missed out last year’s All-Stars Hoops tournament, you can always go to S.O.X’s official website to check out the highlights. Here’s a video of last year’s recap.

Okay, back to the present. The S.O.X All-Stars Hoops final will be held on this coming 31st July 2011, featuring 16 high school basketball teams across Malaysia for the championship. Before the final, 4 teams will be chosen from each conference.

The 4 conferences are:

Eastern Conference – held in Kuching on 3rd July 2011.
Central Conference – hled in Kuala Lumpur on 16th July 2011.
Southern Conference – held in Melaka on 17th July 2011.
Northern Conference – held in Ipoh on 23rd July 2011.

Prizes for this 5-on-5 tournament is attractive as well.

Champion: RM5000
1st runner up: RM3000
2nd runner up: RM2000
3rd runner up: RM500
MVP: RM500
Special skill challenge: Goodies bag worth RM1000
All-Stars challenge: Goodies bag worth RM300 for each player

The Eastern Conference was held on last Sunday, 3rd July 2011 at Stadium MBKS, Kuching. There are 16 participating teams from various high schools. They are:

1. SMK Jalan Arang
2. Thomian
3. Black Pearl
4. SMK Batu Kawa (2 teams from this school)
5. All Star rock
6. SMK St. Joseph
7. Townian
8. SMK Petra Jaya
9. SMK Kuching High
10. SMK Sungai Maong
11. SMK Serian
12. CHMS 1
13. Jack 3
14. SMK Paku
15. SMK Sains Kuching

All participants are under 18. Just like the Celcom XPAX promo for students.

A booth was set up outside the stadium. Those who reload their XPAX telco number is eligible to participate in the mini game. Every RM5 reload, a voucher will be given.

Voucher holder can choose to play the mini game – either to shoot the ball into the hoop…

If you get one ball, a mouse pad will be given as the prize.
If you get three balls in a row, a jacket will be given as the prize.

Or to virtually shoot the ball into the ring via the XBOX console.

Results will only be released on of the day during the event. Prizes will be given out to the winner as well.

This is the event schedule. Yes, it was a whole day event full with excitement!

Okay, back in the stadium, we have 2 emcees providing live updates to the audience .

Judges were busy keeping track of the players’ scores.

Players gathered to discuss about strategy by their coaches.

Backup team sitting aside supporting their teammates.

Here are some shots with some beautiful moment throughout the game.

Isn’t it beautiful?

Run, player, run!

Every moment is breathtaking.

After the preliminary matches, there was a hip-hop dance performance before the semi-finals.

The event was recorded by the media crew, just not to miss every wonderful moment.

This is the special skill challenge game. Selected players were given the chance to perform their skills.

3-point challenge: Players were to shoot in as many balls as possible at 5 different points within 1 minute. Winner for this challenge is Ho Boon Siew from Townian, 7 balls in one minute.

Skills challenge: Players were to run through obstacles and shoot the balls in every point set. Shorter time taken will be the winner. Winner for this challenge is Tong Yee Zhun from SMK Kuching High, 21 seconds to complete all points.

All-Stars games is all about forming a “dream team”. Players from different teams were selected by 2 coaches who observed their performance throughout the entire game. And they were to form 2 different teams and work out together to finish the match. It’s kinda interesting to see them caught up with each other while playing the game. Teamwork spirit can be spotted. Each of the player from the “dream team” will be given a goodies bag that worth RM300. It’s a good opportunity to encourage those teams who were not the winners in the semi-finals.

Here is a video of the event. Have a look:

By the way, the St. John’s ambulance were there to stand by for any emergencies.

St. John’s ambulance on duty.

Final results:

The 4 winning teams who will represent Sarawak are:

SMK Serian
SMK Batu Kawa
SMK St. Joseph
SMK Paku

1st winning team – SMK Serian

2nd winning team – SMK Batu Kawa

3rd winning team – SMK St. Joseph

4th winning team – SMK Paku

Goodies bags were given to players who won in the 3-point challenge, special skills challenge and all-stars game.

Cheng Wei Jie from SMK Batu Kawa is the candidate of  the MVP title. Kuchingnites, be sure to cast your votes to him at S.O.X. All-Stars Hoops website. Voting starts on 23rd July and end at 31st July 2011.

Lastly, a photo of all participating players Well done, all

Are you a basketball lover? Time for you to rock the hoops too!  There are 3 more conferences at different location before the finals. Register your team now! And of course, to join S.O.X (School of X), you need to be under 18. Now tell me, it’s good to be young and energetic. Registration information, rules and regulation all can be found at S.O.X. All-Stars Hoops website.

Bring your friends and family to show your support to the teams!  The next coming matches are scheduled as below. Make sure you mark your calendar.

For more info about S.O.X. All-Stars Hoops, click here.  For more highlights brought to you by S.O.X., do visit www.sox.com.my.

Basketball is not just a game, but a way to reveal your true self

Disclaimer: This is a sponsored post.

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The ingredients is made up of 3 elements – white sugar, green tea, honey (you can have your own choice for the 3rd ingredient).

The very first step is to boil some water and make a cup of green tea (either using green tea leaves or teabag). Just pour about 1/3 of boiling water to the cup. If you are using tea leaves, then you may want to just add in 1 teaspoon of it. For teabag, just use 1 packet. Then, let the tea cool down for about 2 minutes so that it’s in luke warm state.

Second step, add 2 tablespoon of white sugar into a bowl.

Third step, add 1 tablespoon of green tea to the sugar, mix is slightly. Add another 1 tablespoon of white sugar evenly to the mixture and mix well.

Forth step, add 1 teaspoon of your own choice of ingredients to the green tea scrub. At this point, I added honey. Mix well and it’s ready to use!

What to choose for the choice of your 3rd ingredient?

• Honey – to moisturize
• Lemon – to cleanse
• Yogurt – to soothe
• Baby oil – for nourishing effects

Use a cotton pad to absorb the scrub and apply it on your face. Massage your face gently with your fingertips in circular motion. After 1 – 2 minutes of exfoliating your skin, it’s time to rinse it off with luke warm water.

Lastly, use the remaining green tea. Pour it to the cotton pad and pad it on your face as a toner. Apply moisturizer for best effect.

Check out this video by Bubzbeauty for a more detail tutorial on how to make your own green tea facial scrub!

Video:

Summary:

1. 3 tablespoon of white sugar
2. 1 tablespoon of green tea (water)
3. 1 teaspoon of your own choice of ingredient.

Who says you need to spend a lot to get expensive facial products to detox your skin? Try to make your own green tea facial scrub today! ^_^

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What is Rojak?

Rojak is a fruit and vegetable salad dish commonly found in Malaysia, Singapore and Indonesia.

- Read more about Rojak here.

Today, I’m going to teach you how to make your very own rojak.

It’s actually very easy to make, provided you have all the ingredients. There’s no fixed ingredients for a rojak, basically it’s really up to your self preference.

These are the ingredients I prepared before hand.

Since I’m making fruit rojak, I’ll be using mainly fruits for the mixture. Here’s what I used.

Ingredients:

• Pear
• Green apples
• Jicama
• Cucumber
• Fried tofu
• Peanut (in powder form)
• Rojak paste (the essential ingredient)
• Lime (not in the above pic)

Tools:

• A mixing bowl
• A spoon
• A spatula

Before going into details, let me tell you more about the rojak paste. It’s actually prawn paste with some other ingredients. I don’t know how to make my own rojak paste, so I bought a ready-made one. There are many brands available.

If you are wondering what the rojak paste is made of:

It’s black / dark brown in color.

Step 1: Add in the rojak paste to your mixing bowl. Depends on the quantity of food you are going to mix together later.

Step 2: Mix all the fruits and tofu together.

Step 3: Use a spatula to mix them. Mix well. Yay!

Step 4: After mixing, put the mixture to a plate or container. Spread the peanut powder on top.

Step 5: Don’t forget to add some lime juice.

Ready to serve! I made this for Orange, so that he could bring to work.

Of course, I had my own rojak too!

The color may not be so convincing, but it’s really tasty.

Tips: Store the fruits in the fridge before mixing, so that you have chilled fruits. Add some chili if you want to spice up your rojak.

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Then, I thought I would find my answer in Youtube.  You can fold plastic bags into a triangle just like these.

This is the “bag of plastic bags” in the office.

I filtered all the plastic bags and folded them into cute, tiny triangles.

Check out this video below (from Youtube) and you’ll learn how to fold a plastic bag in that method.

It’s pretty easy and once you get familiar with the folding method, you can fold a plastic bag into a triangle in less than a minute!!

Finally, the “plastic bag” corner is clean and neat.

P/s: This method can be applied to almost any kind, sizes of plastic bag.

Try it out yourselves.

Have fun and happy folding ^_^

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…it tastes good as reported by many who have tasted this and most of all, one piece is never enough. Need I say more?

It’s easy to make and it tastes really good!!

Ingredients

• 240 grammes carrots (grated)
• 120 grammes pineapples (tinned, drained and chopped)
• 60 grammes raisins (lightly chopped)
• 60 grammes walnuts (toasted, cooled and chopped coarsely)
• 240 grammes self-raising flour
• 1/4 teaspoons cinnamon powder
• 1/4 teaspoons nutmeg powder
• 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoons vanilla essence (add to eggs)
• 3 eggs
• 210 grammes castor sugar
• 180 ml cooking oil

Lemon Cream Cheese Frosting

• 60 grammes butter (room temperature)
• 230 grammes cream cheese (room temperature)
• 230 grammes icing sugar (sifted)
• 1 lemon (grate the skin)

Method

1. Sift the flour with soda and baking powder. Add castor sugar.
2. Whisk eggs until frothy in a separate bowl. Add in vanilla essence.
3. Pour egg mixture into the flour and stir well. Then add grated carrots followed by cooking oil. Add in the chopped pineapples and stir well.
4. Then add in the raisins and walnuts.
5. Also don’t forget to add in cinnamon powder and nutmeg power into the mixture.
6. Pour mixture into a greased and floured tray and bake in a preheated oven at 170°C for 45 minutes.
7. Remove from oven and allow to stand to cool before applying frosting.

Frosting

1. Put cream cheese and butter in the bowl of an electric mixer. Beat on low speed till blended. Gradually add icing sugar (sifted) and continue beating until smooth.
2. Add vanilla essence and grated lemon and allow to beat till well combined.

Below are some pictures taken while trying to make this cake. It’s my first time baking a cake! I was so excited and it was a successful experience.

240g grated carrots:

120g chopped canned pineapples (I bought Ayam Brand):

60g walnuts (before chopping):

Most of the other ingredients: (raisin and vanilla essence not in the photo)

You need a scale, of course.

I don’t have a baking oven at home, so I went to Patrick’s house to bake the cake.

Mix up everything…

Pour the mixture into the greased and floured tray.

Then put into the preheated oven. While baking, I can smell a very nice fragrance, smells like passing by a “Famous Amos” outlet.

While waiting for the cake, start making the frosting. I don’t have an electronic mixer, so it’s kinda hard to make a smooth frosting by manually mixing up the ingredients.

After more than 45 minutes…taa–daaa~~~

Something was wrong with the oven? So my cake was slightly baked more than the time needed. So lets cut of the “over baked” part on top. Wow..I can see the nice color already~!

Wait till the cake is cooled. Then, it’s time to apply the lemon cream cheese frosting.

I put the cake into the freezer for a while just to speed up the cooling process.

Because we just couldn’t wait to try this cake!!

Add in some colorful heart shaped candies to decorate the cake..

Now, ready to serve.

The cake definitely tastes great! The main reason for me to try baking this cake is to give a surprise for my boyfriend on our anniversary date. Since I’m on diet, I don’t eat much of this cake. But from the expressions of those who tasted this cake, I knew it’s a successful, tasty cake.

I’m happy ^^

Ready to make your own carrot cake now?

P/S: Special thanks to Patrick who let me messing around in his kitchen and accompany me during the baking process.

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