Red Velvet Cupcakes

Ahhhh... Don't they look just gorgeous?

I was sitting at home yesterday browsing through the Internet, while a migraine slowly pounding behind my left eye, and came across some pictures of red velvet cuppies. And I thought to myself, this could be fun. So I searched for the recipe at Joy Of Baking and after making sure that I have all the ingredients, started taking out the butter and egg from the fridge to bring them down to room temperature.

Went up for solat Zohor, watched a little movie for a while then went down to the kitchen to start baking.

First I preheated the oven to 175 degrees C. Then I prepared the buttermilk. Since I didn't have any at home, I read in the web that you can make buttermilk by adding a tablespoon of white distilled vinegar or lemon juice to a cup of milk. So that's what I did and set it aside.

Here's the recipe:

1 1/4 cups (125 grams) sifted cake flour
1/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoons (10 grams) regular or Dutch-processed cocoa powder
1/4 cup (57 grams) unsalted butter, at room temperature
3/4 cups (150 grams) granulated white sugar
1 large egg
1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1/2 cup (120 ml) buttermilk
1 tablespoon liquid red food coloring
1/2 teaspoon white distilled vinegar
1/2 teaspoon baking soda

There's also the recipe for Cream Cheese frosting but I just used the frosting left over from mom's carrot cake.

Taste was yummy and I know I'll be making more of these little devils soon!!!

Ta ta.. see you real soon!!!

Vampires Are My Thing These Days

No, I'm not talking about those sissy Cullen vampires girls are crazy about. Nor am I impressed by the werewolves from the same series. I don't do Vampire Diaries either. In short, I don't read teenage vamps or wares or any kinds of prenatural creatures.

But I do so love the adult vampire romance books from writers like Sherrilyn Kenyon, Christine Feehan, Kerrelyn Sparks, JR Ward, Lara Adrian, Lynsay Sands, Kresley Cole, Larissa Ione and Gena Showalter. These creative authors created a whole world of supernaturals; be them vampires, ware-animals, demons, harpies, valkyries, witches, wizards or angels (fallen or otherwise). I mean, I don't believe they exist in the real world. At least not in the forms that the authors created but it's so much fun to read.

Take the Dark Hunter world that Sherrilyn Kenyon created. It's based loosely on the Greek mythology. Although some characters are somewhat true to their myth like the Gods Zeus, Apollo and Artemis. However, most are a bunch of make believes.

What about the demon world of Larissa Ione's Demonica series? There are all types of demons, either human like or not, and the point of the story is that there are good demons as well as bad demons. Interesting, but so far-fetched the mind boggles. And those good demons work in a demon hospital called the Underworld General.

Then there are the vampires from Kerrelyn Sparks' Love At Stake series. Not only do the Vamps abhor killing mortals, they drink blood from bottles and they have fun Fusion blood drinks like Bleer (blood+beer), Chocolood (blood+chocolate), Blood-Lite (for the calorie conscious vamps), Blissky (blood+whisky) and the newly introduced Bloodonnay (blood+chardonnay).

I mean the imagination that these authors brought into their books are just amazing and so much fun. It's not just a typical romance book, but you are transported into a different world/realm and it's addictive. Well, I am at least. I've got every one of these authors' books and whatever I can't get from our local bookstores, I usually order from Books Depository. I just can't get enough of 'em!!

So in the last week or so, 5 of my latest 6 orders have just arrived. I've already finished 2 of them and on to the 3rd book. When I read, I'm lost in the books that people around me always complains but hey.. I don't care. It's my only guilty pleasure!!!

Cinnamon Rolls

I made cinnamon rolls today. I've been browsing on the internet looking for whichever recipe or method that is the easiest.

So I found this video which uses baking powder instead of yeast, and shortening instead of butter. I decided to try this because:

1) I've never had a good relationship with yeast. My bread making skills are sadly lacking.

2) I want to use up the extra shortening that I have in the pantry before it expires.

3) It looks real easy and quick and I only have about an hour before going out to fetch Nadiah.

Here's the recipe:

2 cups all purpose flour (sifted)

3 tsp baking powder

1 tsp salt

6 tbsp shortening

2/3 cup milk

2 tsp melted butter

1/4 cup sugar

1 tsp cinnamon powder

Preheat oven at 215 degrees C.

Mix the flour, baking powder, salt, shortening and milk in a bowl. Using a fork mix them together (like you would a pie crust), incorporating the shortening into the flour.

Once the mixture has come together into a dough, roll out the dough on a lightly floured surface to approximately 7" x 16" rectangular.

Brush the dough with the melted butter. Mix the sugar and cinnamon powder together and sprinkle over the buttered surface. Gently roll in the dough tightly. Cut about 1 1/2" rolls and arrange them in a muffin pan lined with paper cups.

Bake for 15 - 20 minutes.

Taste great although the texture is more cakey rather than bread-ish. Maybe I should call it Cinnamon Cakes rather than Rolls. But the taste is good and everybody loves it. So mission accomplished. It only took me about 45 minutes to complete, baking time included.

Flying With Nadiah

I have been meaning to blog about this for many months now. Mostly to share my experience and hopefully to help those who have children with autism or other disabilities, or even normal children travelling on an airplane for the first time.

Having a child on the autism spectrum can be a real challenge. But I believe that it's you, the parents, are the ones to determine how to handle the challenges. Knowledge is the key. In today's world, knowledge is at the tip of your fingers. With a bunch of typings and a click, you'll be able to get help on how to handle certain situations.

A year ago, hubby and I decided to take Nadiah on a vacation which would involve flying on an airplane. We chose Perth, Australia as it's a place where the culture, weather and atmosphere are different than Malaysia, but at the same time it has the shortest flight time which is approximately 5 hours. So we bought the tickets in September 2010 and flying out in June 2011. So that gave us 9 months to figure out how to prepare her for the flight. Plenty of time, right?

Nadiah has only been on an airplane when she was still a baby. Since then, we've only taken her on car trips around the country. So as a first step, we decided to test her on a trip to Singapore. But that meant 4 plane rides to and fro: Alor Setar - KL and KL - Singapore and back again. Each ride only takes about an hour or so. We booked tickets on Air Asia because they were cheap and should anything happens, we'll just close one eye and ignore the monetary loss. But to tell you the truth, I was sure she was going to love it.

So a week before the trip, I started taking Nadiah to the airport which is only about 10 minutes from home, just to familiarise her with the place where the airplanes land and pickup passengers. But we didn't actually see planes landing and taking off because it's a small airport and planes coming in and out are pretty limited. I don't think she has actually seen an actual airplane prior to the trip. She knows what they are but have only seen them in books, on TV or on the computer. And everyday we tell her that she is going on an airplane, making flying motions all around her to get her excited about the trip.

So the day came for our trip to Singapore. Woke up early in the morning, we told her that that is the day for our plane ride. We got to the airport and went through check in smoothly and when the plane arrived from KL, Nadiah was standing at the big window all excited. So far, so good. We decided to get on the plane last as she hates waiting in line. But what we forgot about cheap flights is the fact that we have to walk on the tarmac to the plane itself. There was no aerobridge to take us right into the plane. So as soon as we opened the door to the outside, Nadiah had a shock of her life. It was 8.30am, the sun was already shining bright and the door was facing east. With the sun in her eyes, the sight of a big giant bird thing and the loud sounds from the plane, I guess it must have seemed like a horrible monster to her. Nadiah stepped back, laid down on the floor, had her hands to her ears and screamed her lungs out. No amount of persuasion could get her to stop and sit up. She simply refused to listen, shutting everything out but her terror. Only after we managed to move her to the side of the door did she stopped screaming and crying. We tried again to persuade her to go out to the plane but she refused to budged. The airline people were getting restless and in the end we decided to cancel. We had to wait for them to get our luggage from the airplane and as soon as Nadiah saw me started walking the opposite way, she just calmly followed me back out of the waiting area.

Funny thing about Nadiah is, her response to new things are very unpredictable. If we go to a new place, we have to be aware of just about everything: sound, feel, sight. Basically what information may attack her senses. I say attack because some autistic children lack the ability to tune up or down whatever information that reach their senses. In Nadiah's case, she has very sensitive sense of hearing but only to some types of sounds. Loud booms like fire crackers or music blaring from the speakers at shopping malls are fine with her. But sounds of high pressured moving air like a giant fan or an aircond compressor or airplane engine noise, those are a no-no.

To say that I was disappointed was an understatement. I was crushed! I had hoped so much to be able to get her on the airplane that thinking of our failure threatened my tears to start running down. So I just stopped thinking about it. I ignored everything and everyone. I got a book out of my bag and started reading. I just needed some time to come to terms with what's happened. If I talk about it, I knew I won't be able to stop my tears. By then Nadiah was just fine; sitting quietly waiting for my dad to come and pick us up at the airport. When we got home, I was able to function again. But everybody was questioning how are we going to go to Perth if we can't even get Nadiah on a plane to Singapore. I can't be angry with her. That's just the way she is and I've got to accept that real fast. There was still another 8 months to go till our trip to Perth and I promised myself, by hook or by crook, dammit we are going to Perth!!

This time I started early. Like I said, knowledge is key. I may forget my own advice sometimes but I learned fast. I remembered watching a cute video of an inflight safety demo done by kids so I searched on YouTube and found it. It's so cute and it shows what the inside of a plane looks like and because they were done by kids, Nadiah was able to relate to it. This is the video:

Cute right? I also searched for videos and pictures of people getting into airplanes or what you do when you're in an airplane. Being autistic means language is a big problem for Nadiah and simply explaining to her what was what, was a waste of time. She learns and understands better visually either through still or moving pictures.

I also googled on ways to keep Nadiah occupied when on the airplane. There is a famous scrapbooker, Ali Edwards, who has an autistic son, Simon and in one of her blog posts she wrote about her preparation when travelling with her kids. I found it very helpful and what's more, there were loads of people giving suggestions and sharing their own experiences while travelling with kids in the comment section. At that time there were over 40 comments and I read every single one of them. You can read Ali's blog post HERE.

One of the suggestions that I found useful was to prepare little treats wrapped up like presents. Nadiah loves getting presents and for her, tearing off wrapping papers is the best in the world. Another suggestion was an I Spy Bag. It's like a small pillow with a clear 'window' on one side. Inside there are a number of small objects that you need to find buried in plastic beads. You'll have a card with a list of names of the objects. So you manipulate the bag/pillow until you find them all. It's a great game that keeps kids occupied.

So a month before our big trip, we decided to have another test run. This time just a plane ride to KL. We opted on Malaysia Airlines this time so that we'll be able to use the aerobridge to get into the plane. And we also decided on an evening flight. These are the things that I prepared:

• Headphones and music - I found a Barney Songs app and downloaded that into my iPhone so that Nadiah will listen to music via the headphones when getting into the airplane. That way, the music could hopefully eliminate the loud engine sound.
• Little presents - I wrapped up 5-6 little toys and books to make like presents including a box of Rocky biscuit sticks for her inflight snack.
• A laptop - uploaded with her favourite shows
• A change of clothes
• Nadiah's own backpack with her favourite toy, a notebook and a pen for her to scribble anything

While in the waiting room, I showed Nadiah the presents that she would get once she gets into the airplane. She was so excited that she actually walked right to the door wanting to get on first. We had to pull her back and make her wait a few minutes until it was time for boarding. Before boarding, I put on the headphones and plug it into the iPhone and started the music. She was so busy with pushing the buttons that she didn't even realize that she was already on the plane. And whilst waiting for all the passengers to get on, we started giving her presents one at a time. I had wrapped the presents tightly with lots of tape so that it would take her a little more time to unwrap everything. See.. the little details matter. Before long the plane was taxing on the runway and when it started to speed up for the take off, Nadiah loved that. She kept counting "3,2,1 blast off!!". I actually had tears in my eyes.. tears of happiness. Yet another hurdle that we managed to cross and I was so very proud of her.

Needless to say, the trip to Perth was a total success. We learned from the test run that Nadiah won't eat or drink anything from the flight but she would eat or drink anything that came from her backpack. As long as she has the headphones on, even if it's not plugged to anything, she's good to go. It's just having the sense of security around her ears I guess. Since the flight out to Perth was a night one, we brought along her pajamas and changed her before boarding the plane. That way she will sleep on the plane because sleeping time means changing into her PJs. She slept almost all the way and only woke up less than an hour before we reached Perth.

So that's my story that I wanted to share. I just hope that my experience will help other parents who are facing a hard time getting their children to try something new. Never ever give up. If you fail, find another way, use a different approach, talk to other parents, research and most importantly believe in yourself. Remember.. where there's a will, there's a way. Insyaallah, Allah will help those who help themselves.

Thanks for stopping by.

Beading Classes

After more than a year, I've decided to start giving beading classes again. Mostly because there has been a lot of demands in the past year. Ever since I started posting my work on my FB page, more and more of my friends hve become interested in learning the arts of beading embroidery.

To tell you the truth, I would never in a million years thought that this is where my life would take me. When I was young and still in school, I always thought I'll either be working in an accounting office somewhere or stay at home and be a mom. The latter is preferable actually :D. But staying at home wasn't as fun as I thought it would be. I needed an outlet for my creative side and beading just began as a why-not-since-there's-nothing-else-to-do kinda thing.

You see, it was actually my mom who went and took a class with Rosita Jaafar, a beading guru in KL. Mom came back and taught me 1 technique. Then she gave me a book with lots of how-tos and as they say, the rest is history. I found that my brains were clever enough to understand diagrams and why is this important? Because later on I learned that what I found very easy to understand, a whole lot of people couldn't. And that's how, and why I started giving classes. But classes started after 5-6 years after I started beading myself.

Now I feel like this is something I can do on a permanent basis. As long as there is demand for the knowledge, I know this is what I have and what I can do to generate income.

I've held classes in Alor Setar and in KL, and I dreamed of going around the country holding more classes. Soon, I hope...

Sushi

We had sushi for lunch yesterday. Homemade. Having a husband who went to Japan to study a long time ago means we eat Japanese food on a regular basis.

The best part is that from when she was little, Nadiah was introduced to eating with chopsticks and she LOVES it. Even now, whenever we eat any sort of noodle, she would insist on using chopsticks. And I have to admit that her chopsticks skills are wayyyyyy better than mine. Her finger control is just fantastic. In a way, mastering the use of chopsticks help in her fine motor skills

Back to sushi making, this time is the first time that I had to roll them sushis on my own. I have to say that my rolling was a little sloppy but the taste was great. We even made one roll for Nadiah. But hers was wasabi-less of course. So here's Nadiah with her sushi and her chopsticks

Blogger On iPhone

Hello.
I just downloaded Blogger for iPhone and trying it out. Hope it looks ok viewed on the PC.

Nadiah Speaks

Nadiah: Baba, baba. Go to swimming waterpark. Every morning, sun going up
Translation: Baba, baba. Let's go swimming at the waterpark. Tomorrow morning when the sun rises.
At age 9, this is how Nadiah speaks. Not perfect but we get the gist of it. What's important is that she is able to express herself by putting it into words. And we are able to understand her.

Love is Life

Love is life.

If you miss love,

You miss life!

Grow Up And Be A Chef

For the past few years, Nadiah would tell us that she wants to "grow up and be a doctor", exactly like what she hears in Barney. But last night when she was getting ready for bed, all of a sudden she said "Grow up and be a chef".

Me and hubby were surprised that we burst out laughing. Not because she wanted to be a chef. But that out of the blue she just blurted it out. So we started asking her what she wants to cook. She said she wanted to cook egg bread (French toast), spaghetti, cake and something else I can't remember. Basically all the things that she loves to eat.

It's so cute. And to think that when she was little we thought she might not lead a normal life. I pray to Allah that she WILL be a chef when she grows up.