Almost time to say goodbye

Can't believe 8 months has passed..and tomorrow will be my last day at office here..
Before I leave, I decided to make some thank you cards for my colleagues as a token of appreciation..
Check it out..

Carrot cake

Aha! In an attempt to clear off my stock (I'm going home in another 2 months!! Yippie!!)..I've decided to bake yet another cake for breakfast...mind you, I've been consuming only Jacob's crackers & Quaker Oatmeal alternately each week, and the mere sight of them make me wanna puke now! lol!

Carrot cake has always been my favourite cake and back home in Malaysia, whenever I do drop by Secret Recipe Restaurant, cheese cake was never my selection (although it was hubby's favourite) and I never fail to pick the carrot cake instead..Somehow, I love this cake for the nutrition in it(it has carrots in it anyway) and if we don't take so much of the cream cheese frosting, it is not that sweet, definitely a much healthier choice!

I googled for some carrot cake recipe, and since this one uses only vegetable oil and no butter, I thought I would give it a try. As usual, I don't follow exactly the recipe when it comes to sugar...guess what? when I'm in the midst of preparing the ingredients, I realised that my fine sugar has ran out, and I have only about half cup of brown sugar left...No choice,brown sugar then..but the recipe asked for 1 cup of sugar, my only alternative is to include more of raisins instead! Also, I've omitted the cheese cream frosting part. Thanks to my horrible Hungarian language, I've bought buttercream instead of cheesecream. Sigh..

Anyway, here's some pictures of the outcome of the cake..Surprisingly the cake turned out pretty good, but it is not as moist as I wanted it to be.. I'm still struggling to learn to use the oven properly, I can't seem to bake a cake without overbaking the top layer! How to ensure that the whole cake bakes consistently? Any suggestion?...

The mixture..I guess it's too oily!

Preparing to bake!

Done! But look, the top layer is slightly burnt again! :(

Sliced into half..one for distribution to my fellow colleagues, another half for own consumption! :)

Curry puffs- my first attempt

My mentor actually decided to throw a "surprise" birthday party for me at work tomorrow. But guess what? Instead of a "surprise", he had accidentally sent me the birthday invitation instead last Friday! lol!

But it was all good as I have already decided to bring some food to office tomorrow too. As my marble cake failed, I decided to make some curry puffs instead. Curry puffs should be a good introduction to my Hungarian colleagues as it is a popular Malaysian snack.

It took me  a total 6 hours to make these curry puffs! Boy, it sure is alot of work but definitely worth it when we eat them! :P

 Started with the dough. I kneaded the dough and rest it in the fridge for half and hour before I started. I've been told that the dough must always be in cool temperature!

 I cooked the fillings the day before. It was potato curry with minced meat.

 Next, flatten the dough. As I did not have a rolling pin, I used a flask instead! lol!

Well, as long as it did the job well!

Next, make the circles. I used a glass mug.

Here's a view of my "workstation"..basically this is on my dining table! :P

Put in the fillings into the dough, seal the sides and roll up the sides, voila, here's my uncooked curry puffs!

Deep fry them...and absorb the oil with napkins and left them to cool.

After the puffs cooled down, I packed them into tupperwares and they were ready to go! :)

Happy Birthday 2012

Happy Birthday to myself!! hehe...

This morning, I got a lovely surprise when I woke up. As I looked out to my balcony, all I see was white!! It was snowing!!! It sure make my day! Only yesterday, we were complaining that the temperature here is too "hot" for winter...temperature was around 3 degrees celcius the day before yesterday..and having experienced below freezing temperature for the past months, yes, this temperature is considered warm for us now! lol!

The snow!!

How I wish this would stay so that I could build my snowman!! :)

Gosh...one year older again...this year, it's my first birthday after my marriage. Also, it's the first time I'm celebrating it here in Hungary away from hubby. How I missed him! :(

Counting down of the days I'm heading home which is another 3 months away!!

I decided to bake a marble cake yesterday inconjunction with my birthday but unfortunately my mission failed!! :(...I must have put too much chocolate and the cake ended up too crumbly and became like brownies instead!

Out from the oven, and the chocolate bits were burnt! :(

Since it's crumbly, it broke into two :(..

Oh well, I'll try again next time....

I was lucky as my colleague decided to cook for me and the best part is they baked me a marble cake too! Great!! :)

Check out the marble cake baked by my friend, SP.

All the mouth-watering dishes!!

Clockwise from top right: Vegetarian tomyam soup, marble cake, belachan chicken wings, fried turnip cake and lastly steamed fungus chicken.

Here's the dish I contributed. 

My mom's specialty: steamed fungus chicken with fermented bean+vinegar.

Yummy!

Thanks to all of them! Great people!

And I know I will miss this experience when I go home!

Happy New Year 2012

I can't believe 2011 is ending and 2012 is just  3 days away. I have been religiously writing my resolution each year but I am far from achieving all of them. Here's a recap of my 2011 resolutions:

1. Stop Procrastination - I need to be more proactive and perform the tasks I have listed according to priority. ---> I still need to work on this, procrastination is still one of my bad habits.

2. Time management - I need to rise early and go to bed early. To get to work by 8 am and get home by 6pm --> I achieved this unintentionally since I usually get to work by 7.30am, sharing a taxi with the rest of my colleagues. I need to keep this routine when I get home.
3. Health - Exercise at least 3 times a week! (swimming and going to the gym) -->Failed. Basically, no exercise when I'm here (except when I'm travelling!). I need to work on this!
4. Finance - Start a passive income channel (e.g: online biz, gold investment) --> Still nothing :(
5. Work - Improve on my programming skills (NI SW and scripting) --> Still lacking, need to improve!
6. Attitude - Improve on my self belief and confidence! --> Need more work!
7. Lifestyle - Read at least 1 book a quarter and learn to bake cake! --> Baking cakes, yes,but book...err nope :(
 
My 2012 New Year Resolutions:
 
1. Family : Spend more time with my hubby & family. I have been away from home too long.
2. Lifestyle : Cook 3 meals a week at home.
                   : Bake at least once a month.
3. Health   : Continue with my yoga class.
                  : Swim once a week
                  : Eat my oats 4 times a week & loads of fibre and fruits
4. Financial : Start stock investment.
                   : Business ideas
                   : Increase my home loan mortgage payment by 50%.  
                   : Read financial & economic news every week!
5. Work : Write automation scripts.
             : Process improvement ideas (at least 1 per quarter)
             : Study work material 2 times a week
6. Attitude : Improve on my concentration!
                   : Socialise more with friends.
                   : Improve on my Self-belief
                  
Alright, I have to make sure I stick to this and stay true to my resolutions!!!
 
Happy New Year everyone!! :)
                                  

Christmas 2011

Finally it snowed in Debrecen on the 17th December 2011.
We decided to go to the city center that day since there is a Christmas Market there too. Colorful lights, fresh snow and freezing cold, definitely brought in the Christmas spirit!

It's snowing! or "esik a hó" (in Hungarian!). There's a big Christmas tree in front of the Yellow church too!

I decided to bake some Christmas cuppies and muffins for my colleagues...The muffins baked were very healthy and wholesome wholewheat banana honey walnut muffins!

The bigger muffins doesn't look very presentable, thus I decided to give the smaller cupcakes to my colleagues instead.

All wrapped up, with homemade Christmas greeting cards.

On 19th December, some of my colleagues came over to my apartment for some Palinka shots prior to our annual Manufacturing dinner which is held at the same apartment I stayed at.

A newcomer to the family

Presenting my lil' niece, E Jean..

Please mind the photo quality, picture was captured from my webcam!
Isn't she a cutie? :)