Heaven Planet: July 2010

Saturday, July 24, 2010

How to cook Raspberry Ice Cream Cakes

Posted by Hannoun at 1:21 PM

Pound Cake:

3 largeeggs, room temperature

3 tablespoons milk, room temperature

1 1/2 teaspoons purevanillaextract

1 1/2 cups (150 grams) sifted cakeflour

1 teaspoonbaking powder

1/4 teaspoon salt

3/4 cup (150 grams) granulated whitesugar

13 tablespoons (185 grams) unsaltedbutter, room temperature

Raspberry Jam or Preserves

Filling:

Vanilla ice cream (homemade or store bought

Frosting:

1 cup heavy whipping cream

4 tablespoons Raspberry Jam or Preserves (orRaspberry Sauce)

Garnish:

Fresh Raspberries

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how to Watermelon Bombe Recipe

Posted by Hannoun at 9:41 AM

5 - 6 cups (about 3 pints) lime sherbet or sorbet
2 cups vanilla ice cream
5 - 6 cups (about 3 pints) raspberry sorbet or sherbet
2-3 tablespoons miniature chocolate chips

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Tuesday, July 13, 2010

how to cook an Apple Tart

Posted by Hannoun at 6:38 PM

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1 cup (130 grams) all-purpose flour

1/3 cup (35 grams) confectioners (powdered or icing) sugar

1/2 cup (1 stick) (113 grams) cold unsalted butter, cut into small pieces

Filling:

One 8-ounce (227 grams) cream cheese, at room temperature

1/4 cup (50 grams) granulated white sugar

1 large egg

1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

Topping:

1/4 cup (50 grams) granulated white sugar

1/2 teaspoon (2 grams) ground cinnamon

4 cups (500 ml) Granny Smith apples, peeled and cut into 1/4 inch (.6 cm) slices (about 3-4 large apples)

1/3 cup (35 grams) sliced almon

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What's your favorite berry? Mine's raspberries. I always thought Waverley Root described raspberries perfectly, "rich, exotic, spice-laden and with a hint of musk". This Raspberry Tart is a nice way to bake with raspberries. It takes ruby red raspberries and arranges them in concentric circles on top of a crisp and buttery pastry. Nothing else is needed, save a sprinkling of sugar. It is excellent warm from the oven with a small scoop of vanilla ice cream.

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hoaw to cook a Blackberry Tart

Posted by Hannoun at 10:35 AM

My introduction to tart making began about 15 years ago when I took a week long patisserie class at London's Le Cordon Bleu. During that week we learned how to make all kinds of tarts; lemon, chocolate, almond, apple, and fruit. My favorite, by far, was the fruit tart. Even today I love the combination of a sweet buttery crust, a rich silky cream, and juicy ripe fruit. And I especially like glazing the fruit with jam, as it makes the tart almost sparkle.

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how to cook a Fruit Tart

Posted by Hannoun at 10:26 AM

This classic French Fruit Tart has a sweet pastry crust that is filled with a rich and creamy pastry cream and topped with seasonal fresh fruit. Whether you use a single fruit or a medley of fruits and berries, no one can resist this tart's beauty and charm..

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Friday, July 9, 2010

How to cook a Chocolate Muffins

Posted by Hannoun at 6:11 PM

If you love chocolate, then having a Chocolate Muffin for breakfast seems perfectly acceptable. These Chocolate Muffins give you a double dose of chocolate, as they contain both cocoa powder and chocolate chips. You can use either natural unsweetened cocoa powder or Dutch-processed cocoa powder and while I lean towards milk chocolate chips, you can also use semi sweet or even white chocolate chips.

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White Cupcakes Recipe

Posted by Hannoun at 6:05 PM

Cupcakes are described as individual cakes that are baked in muffins cups lined with paper or foil baking cups. They come in a variety of flavors and are usually frosted with colored icing and garnished with sprinkles. While this definition sounds about right it does not describe how delightful cupcakes look and how delicious they taste. As you have probably noticed cupcakes have taken the country by storm. Bakeries offer us every possible flavor combination you can imagine, but the classic sweet and buttery White Cupcake frosted with swirls of creamy smooth Confectioners Frosting remains a favorite.

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Delicious Chocolate Cheesecake

Posted by Hannoun at 5:58 PM

A Chocolate Cheesecake is a real showstopper that combines three delicious layers of chocolate. The first layer is a sandy textured chocolate crust made with crushed chocolate wafers mixed with a little melted butter. The middle layer is a chocolate cheesecake made with a knock-out combination of melted chocolate, cream cheese, sugar, eggs, and sour cream. It is sinfully chocolately yet with a delightfully tangy flavor that has a texture that will remind you of a thick, silky smooth chocolate mousse. Once baked, cooled, and chilled, the final smooth and shiny chocolate layer is added. It is a mixture of cream and chocolate (a ganache) that makes you think you are eating a chocolate truffle.

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Nanaimo Bars chocolate squares

Posted by Hannoun at 5:34 PM

Nanaimo Bars (N.B.s for short) are one of Canada's favorite confections. The beautiful City of Nanaimo, British Columbia has claimed these squares as their own, telling us on their website that it all began when a Nanaimo housewife entered a recipe for chocolate squares in a magazine contest some 35 years ago. She called her recipe 'Nanaimo Bars' and when she won the contest, not only did her dessert become popular throughout Canada, so did the town they were named after. These no-bake, three layered bars are famous for a reason, they are delicious. They start with a crumb base, followed by a layer of light custard buttercream, and the crowning glory is a smooth and glossy layer of semi sweet chocolate.

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Red Velvet Cake

Posted by Hannoun at 5:26 PM

A Red Velvet Cake is very dramatic looking with its bright red color that is offset by a creamy white frosting. There are many theories as to its orgin. Some say it comes from the South, others say it originated in the North. All we really know is that it has been a favorite for decades, not only in the States but also in Canada (it used to be sold in Eaton's Department Stores). It is really a Devil's Food Cake that has red food coloring added to it. John Mariani tells us in his book "The Dictionary of American Food and Drink" that the name 'Devil's Food Cake' is so called "because it is supposedly so rich and delicious that it must, to a moralist, be somewhat sinful."

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how to make a Chocolate Ice Cream

Posted by Hannoun at 1:02 PM

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If you are a chocolate lover, you will not be surprised to hear that chocolate ice cream is an American favorite. This chocolate ice cream has a deep and rich chocolate flavor because it contains both cocoa powder and semisweet chocolate. Its silky smooth texture comes from making the ice cream with a custard base.

Ice creams that start with a custard are made from cream, sugar, eggs, and flavoring. Each ingredient contributes to the ice cream's smooth texture and rich flavor. The amount of cream used and its butterfat content gives ice cream its rich and creamy taste. The next ingredient, sugar, gives the ice cream its smoothness. The eggs are necessary for smoothness and also gives the ice cream its nice color. The best results come when the custard is made the the night before and left in the refrigerator overnight to chill sufficiently before it is churned. It is important that the custard only fills your ice cream machine about half to two thirds full. This gives the custard enough room to expand while it freezes so you end up with an ice cream with a light texture and no graininess. As the ice cream is still quite soft once it has been churned in the machine, transfer it to a storage container and place it in the freezer for a few hours before serving. This also allows the flavors to mellow. Although I prefer to eat homemade ice cream the day it is made, it can be stored for a few weeks in the freezer. It will become quite hard after being frozen for any length of time so transfer it to the refrigerator to soften for about 30 minutes before serving.

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Chocolate Cake

Posted by Hannoun at 10:48 AM

For a double dose of chocolate, there is nothing better than a chocolate frosted chocolate cake. This single layer cake has a moist and tender crumb with a rich and creamy frosting made with just chocolate and cream (Ganache). The kids will love it with a tall glass of cold milk while the adults might prefer it with a hot cup of coffee.

What makes this chocolate cake unique is that it is a "mix-in-the-pan" type of cake. That means all the dry and wet ingredients are mixed together right in the pan it is to be baked in. There are a couple of things about this recipe that are worth mentioning. First, it does not contain eggs. Second, this cake uses unsweetened (natural) cocoa powder (not Dutch processed) which is made from chocolate liquor that has been pressed to remove three quarters of its cocoa butter. The remaining cocoa solids are processed to make fine unsweetened cocoa powder. It has an intense bitter flavor that makes it well suited for use in chocolate cakes. Popular brands are Hershey's, Ghirardelli, Pernigotti, and Scharffen Berger. Third, we also add a little lemon juice (or vinegar) to the batter, which causes a reaction between the cocoa powder and the lemon juice giving the baked cake a red tinge (reminiscent of a Red Velvet Cake).

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Thursday, July 8, 2010

vols au vent

Posted by Hannoun at 7:09 PM

I was unfathomably (almost embarrassingly) excited about my second daring baker’s challenge. Possibly more excited, even, than I was about the first. I’d been trying to talk myself into making puff pastry for a while now – and this challenge? Well it was just the kick in the behind that I needed.

strawberry mousse vols au vent

I was so inspired, in fact, that I ended up doing even more than was asked of me. Having completed the pastry with no dramas (unlike the last challenge – oh. my. goodness!) I decided to push myself just that little bit further and created a little strawberry and mandarin tasting plate, complete with my first batch of macarons and my summery strawberry & mandarin mousse.

a strawberry tasting plate: puff pastry star with mandarin glaze, strawberry & mandarin macaron, strawberry mousse vols au vent

I plated the lot of it on a strawberry glaze with a bitter mandarin sauce and left it in the piano room for the family to look at while I went to chop up some fresh strawberries to top their mousse with.
I came back to a largely empty plate.

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A great toffee apple suet puddings

Posted by Hannoun at 6:51 PM

The April 2010 Daring Bakers’ challenge was hosted by Esther of The Lilac Kitchen. She challenged everyone to make a traditional British pudding using, if possible, a very traditional British ingredient: suet. (and oh, what a challenge it was!)

It has been all systems go here at onebitemore-central.
And when all systems are go, everything is almost bound to fall in a giant, fail-filled heap.
It started when I forgot to put sugar in the Bean’s birthday cake. Then it continued when I made 28 fennel flans for a cuh-razy blogger cook off, forgot to freeze my sorbet, and doubled a recipe that I possibly should have halved.
And, after all of that, came the daring bakers challenge.

“Crap!” I exclaimed at nobody in particular as I realised that the suet I bought was more blood than fat.
“CRAP!” flew through the air as my rendering efforts were stymied by potential lateness-for-soccer (resulting in bits of said suet flying through the air as they were shredded with a food processor).
“What the (goat!)” I yelled at nobody in particular as I pushed and prodded the lovely, supple, but oh-so-easily torn pastry into chinese tea cups.

And the VTB looked on in part-amusement and part-horror as I derided the suet, the animal that it came from, and the crazed nation that thought it would be a good idea to incorporate said ingredient into anything edible.
A pause when the challenge was completed.

“It is pretty…” said the Bean.

“It doesn’t taste as bad as you think, knowing what went into it…” said Mother-Bite-More, encouragingly.
“Much as I am mostly-British,” said the VTB, a couple of chews later “I do not think that the Britishness translated to my tastebuds.”
A pause.
“The caramel is nice though!”
And so went the story of this month’s daring baker’s challenge.
I will give you the recipe though, because with butter instead of suet and a glob of butter thrown into the mix before the pastry is sealed off and steamed, it may just be alright. For those who like a steamed pastry that is. And I know you’re out there.

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an easy and delicious nanaimo bars

Posted by Hannoun at 5:58 PM

The January 2010 Daring Bakers’ challenge was hosted by Lauren of Celiac Teen. Lauren chose Gluten-Free Graham Wafers and Nanaimo Bars as the challenge for the month. The sources she based her recipe on are 101 Cookbooks and www.nanaimo.ca.

bananaimo bars

Tell you what, I actually finished this challenge a good week and a half ago. A week and a half. That’s the earliest I’ve ever finished a Daring Bakers Challenge… ever!
But I’m posting late.

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do you know the the macaron??

Posted by Hannoun at 5:52 PM

My fingers were at the ready. It was the first of October and I was riding high on the back of my puff pastry successes – what would this month bring? I was hoping for something pretty. Something delicate. Something I hadn’t even thought to do before… and then I saw it:
The 2009 October Daring Bakers’ challenge was brought to us by Ami S. She chose macarons from Claudia Fleming’s The Last Course: The Desserts of Gramercy Tavern as the challenge recipe.

chocolate and hazelnut macaron

Don’t get me wrong. I actually rather enjoy making macaron. It’s a calming, methodical process – and the reactions you get to a batch of the freshly baked! Oh! These delicious little morsels can extrude squeals of delight that no cake can (regardless of how multi-faceted and hair-tearingly complex said cake can be to make).

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yoghurt cake with lavender and honey

Posted by Hannoun at 5:48 PM

“It has been more than a month, you know.”
I looked up from my bowl of noodles, head to one side, an expression on my face that could possibly be interpreted as “No, really?” or “I’m not hearing you right, am I?” or “I’m going to pretend I didn’t hear that right so you repeat yourself, because truly, it can’t be so.”
He nodded, a slice of pork parcel poised between his chopsticks.
“Since your last post. November 3rd. I checked just the other day.”
My forehead grew furrows. It can’t have been. It was only the other day that…
“Focaccia. You made it for my lunch and brought it to the picnic. I hope it isn’t because… well… I like that you blog. So please don’t stop, ok?”

honey & lavender cake

And, like that, I realised that it truly had been a month. A flurry of weddings and birthdays and eight-to-eight work days where large grey folders full of documents had travelled on the bus with me and home to my desk and then back into work again, but this time with coloured tabs and highlighted paragraphs. A month where my feet have barely touched the ground, for reasons both thrilling and mundane. A month in which I settled down to dinner with my family for the first time in weeks, only to be laughed at by my mother.
“Ahhh Cheh!” she said, in between her laughing and pretence at swotting me about the head “Good thing I bring you to Cairns, otherwise we will never see you!”

my mother's much loved lavender

A month in which emails trickled across the internet. “I miss you! I never see you anymore!” and “I’m so busy. It’s been months… maybe we could lunch? If I am able to get away?” and emails from readers whose comments make me laugh titled “What gives?” and containing sad internet tears at the possibility of a blogging demise.
There were posts written. Oh yes there were! But they were sad. And tired. And disgruntled. And uninspired. And that is not who I am, and that is not what onebitemore is about. So they were discarded with hopes of maybe-tomorrow-I’ll-write-something-more-like-me.
And then I pissed off to Cairns and came back again with a stinger in my stride (an inch above the back of my left knee in case you were curious), a peeling set of shoulders (strangely, courtesy Manly and not Cairns at all) and stories to tell you. Oh! The stories!
So I am back, and with cake! For all of you.
And I’m sorry, dear internet. I didn’t mean to be away for quite so long.

you will need:
200g butter
½C natural yoghurt
¼C + ¾C cream
½C + 2tbs honey
2tbs lavender buds
2 eggs
¼C sugar
1¾C self raising flour
½tsp baking powder

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How to cook a celebration cake

Posted by Hannoun at 5:42 PM

There is an unspoken rule in my household: “Where there is celebration, there is cake“. To be honest, in practice, it translates more accurately as “Where there is anyone living in this house, there is cake”, but that doesn’t quite have the same ring to it. And so, I bring you cake today. And because there is more than one reason for celebration, I bring you a giant, somewhat unnecessarily complicated layered cake. Because, hey! If the Bean’s birthday warrants a triple deckered marble cake carved into the shape of a sombrero, surely a trifecta of the one-hundredth post on onebitemore and a combination not one, but two birthdays (being the father’s and oh-yes-I-forgot-to-mention-my-birthday-happened-while-I-was-in-Malaysia) warrants a really, really big one… right?

It was not supposed to be such a large cake. I was going to make small layered cakes, about 15cm in diameter, with melt-in-your-mouth layers of chocolate sponge and a striking pistachio and orange blossom cream. Oh, and a glossy chocolate ganache to top it all off.
But, like with most things in life, I got carried away into a world where making two flavours of cake and that very same cream would match fantastically with a butterscotch pear insert a-la-that-Zumbo-mousse-cake, and what-the-heck-I’ll-just-start-and-see-where-I-end-up. So I started. And, some hours later (including a trip to the airport and a pit stop at Chat Thai), I was done. And I was so damn tired that I didn’t even want to look at the stupid thing.
But I had to, because we were using it to celebrate belated birthdays that night. And as I tasted it, all of my aches and pains started to disappear. The frustration and cussing were replaced with an odd serenity. And I knew that, despite all the parts in the cake that I thought weren’t quite right, that together, it worked.
Which, to take advantage of that little segue, is somewhat like the story of this blog. There’s bits that break all the time. Posts that I’m not quite happy with, pictures that I shake my head at in disbelief. But somehow, it just works, and doing this – well, it makes me happy (despite all the hair-tearing and cussing that may happen behind the scenes). So thanks for being part of the ride so far, cos it’s sure been nice to have your company.

Layered Celebration Cake

Road Map:
1. Make the cakes & let them cool.
2. Make the butterscotch insert & stick it in the freezer.
3. Make the bitter chocolate ganache-y buttercream.
4. Make the pistachio cream.
5. Piece it all together.
6. Eat.
Making the Chocolate Cake

You will need:
250g butter
250g sugar
4 eggs
4tbsp (60g) cocoa powder
190g self-raising flour (2C less 4tbsp)
4tbsp (60ml) water

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chocolate icecream

Posted by Hannoun at 10:21 AM

It’s been a while since I had my last coffee. And by a while, I mean almost six years. Six long, dry years. Sure, I’ve had the occasional sip – a mixed up order where the C for chai was translated as a C for cappucino, but nothing substantial, and certainly nothing intentional.
The upside of it all comes in the form of better sleeping patterns, fewer stomach problems and headaches that don’t immobilize me like the used to… but the downside. Oh! The Downside!

Remember the days when the only viable option for a weight conscious, coffee-avoiding, dairy intolerant girl around coffee time was a bag of ground up vegetation dumped unceremoniously into a cup of hot water for $3.50? Well, that, or a soy babycino?

delicious easy ice cream using just three ingredients

a deliciously easy ice cream using just three ingredients

Worse still was the problem of finding an instant coffee substitute. Yes, tea in a bag was adept at warming the hands and providing a person with something to sip on, but I drink mine black-no-sugar, and it lacks a certain fragrant warmth that only coffee has.
Milo, ovaltine and horlicks were in short supply, and made me feel like bedtime.
It seemed all would be lost when I found chai.

indulge your senses pure chai (chocolate flavour)

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A delicious chocolate tart

Posted by Hannoun at 10:11 AM

Looking back, I should have known. A chocolate pastry with no eggs in the recipe. No eggs, no liquid. It was never going to be a pastry. I really should have known. But no! I blindly trusted the words on the page and ended up with rubble. And that is where my instincts kicked in.

I don’t think I’m cut out to be a pastry chef. As a breed, they are accurate. They measure, they record, the follow procedure. I am haphazard and experimental and finish my baking-testing-sessions with indecipherable units scrawled across a butter coated page. But I did well this time, oh yes I did. Because this recipe – the one that I swore I’d never make again, the one I messed about with so much it is unidentifiable, was bliss at first bite.

Bitter chocolate and pistachio praline tart. Say it with me. Mmmm…..

I’m splitting this recipe into two posts due to its sheer length. Don’t be discouraged. It’s a lovely, lovely tart. I should know. I ate two slices of it, and I’m not a chocolate tart kinda girl.

bitter chocolate & pistachio praline tart – the pastry

You will need:

120g butter
115g white sugar
pinch of salt
1tsp vanilla essence
2 eggs
50gm cocoa powder
120g flour (or 200g flour if you prefer it crunchy and not soft)

the ingredients for the pastry - sort of

Step One:
Measure out your ingredients. An organised kitchen is a happy kitchen, or so they say. Don’t forget the eggs.

cream the butter & sugar

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Wednesday, July 7, 2010

Delicious dobos torta

Posted by Hannoun at 12:50 PM

The August 2009 Daring Bakers’ challenge was hosted by Angela of A Spoonful of Sugar and Lorraine of Not Quite Nigella. They chose the spectacular Dobos Torte based on a recipe from Rick Rodgers’ cookbook Kaffeehaus: Exquisite Desserts from the Classic Caffés of Vienna, Budapest, and Prague… and this time, I was a part of it.

For a long time now, I’ve dreamt of being a Daring Baker. Someone who can effortlessly pull together a Yule Log in the dying moments before a Christmas Dinner. Someone who has made an Opera Cake. And a cheesecake. And tuiles.
So I gawked and dreamed and clicked my way through the hundreds of posts that would appear on the 27th of each month. And each month, I told myself “Next month I’ll join. Just to see. I bet I could. I hope I could…”
My life became entwined with wondering what would be up next month, and subconsciously making that very thing in the weeks before the reveal. A bevvy of tarts in June. A marshmallow frenzy in July. And a big fat layered cake in August.

So you can imagine my chargrain / delight (to this day I am not sure which one I was feeling) when I signed up, logged on and realised that luck had struck again. There would be not one, but two layered cakes in my life this month.

Continue

how to cook a raspberry and rosewater macarons

Posted by Hannoun at 11:42 AM

You should have seen the look on my face. Two printed sheets in plastic sleeves, complete with highlighting and annotation. Two hours of pacing around the kitchen. Twelve tense minutes staring at the oven door. Ten minutes of eyes scrunched into themselves, lips murmuring “C’mon work work work!” One misread instruction and one minor panic attack. One slightly fed up mother and a spatula.
And then, miraculously, they were done. Slightly glossy outer shell? Check! Chewy melting centre? Check! Feet? Check! My very first batch of macarons, sans catastrophic failure? Hurrah!

raspberry & rosewater macarons

I have been challenging myself of late. Both in what I choose to eat and what I choose to cook. It’s a temporary insanity, don’t you worry, and the regular slap-dash recipes will be back shortly.
Having ticked gelatin off my list of fears (marshmallows & mousse), I decided to up the ante. With macarons.

They’re notoriously difficult to manage, and a quick scan of the interwebs revealed a minefield of different methods, meringues and macaron-esque terms. So I approached it the only way I knew how.
With a tonne of research and more than a couple of super-heartfelt prayers.

raspberry & rosewater macarons

basic macaron mix

I won’t pretend I know everything about making macarons – far from it! I’ve only made the one batch! But I do know that this recipe worked for me (aka the macaron novice). It’s a rephrasing of Audax Artifex’s Basic French Meringue Macaron recipe, that he, in turn, rephrased from an article of Helen of Tartlette’s. Do give it a shot – at worst, you’ll end up with tasty sugary bites!

CONTINUE

Chocolate-chestnut with honey-comb

Posted by Hannoun at 11:35 AM

I have so many things that I could write about this honeycomb. My semi-despair at the never-depleting vat of chestnut honey from which the honeycomb draws its earth, mellow flavour.
The delighted expressions that adorned our faces when the bicarbonate of soda was added to the mixture and golden bubbles abounded.
The Bean’s cheeky chocolate-covered grin as she stuck the pair of chopsticks I’d given to her for dipping with straight into her mouth instead.

But instead, my mind is full of other words. Spoken and unspoken. Words uttered in amongst a sea of frustration and misunderstanding. Words spoken for the sake of keeping the peace.
Words unspoken for the very same reason.
And then silence.

Silence in place of the words that used to tumble and stutter and fly through the air. Words left unanswered, hanging in the emptiness of a room that once held two. Words accumulating on message bank memories and on the translucent pages of a letter hand-delivered in a downpour to the mailbox of an empty apartment, its door firmly locked, the bell unanswered.

CONTINUE

A delicious homemade crumpets

Posted by Hannoun at 10:37 AM

Toasty warm bed.
It’s my favourite place in the entire house (kitchen included), and especially on the frosty winter mornings we’ve been having of late. But if there’s one thing that will have me humming down the stairs, it’s the promise of breakfast.
A slow breakfast. The type that involves multiple mugs of milky tea and something warm to munch on. The type that you don’t need to get changed out of your flannelette pyjamas for. The type that involves crumpets.

Oh, I know. You’re pooh-pah-ing me already.
“Crrrrrrum-pets?!” you spit out “Those bubbled, flaccid, tasteless things that come from the supermarket smelling like plastic?”
But no! For these are home-made crumpets that even the Bean was fond of (and she is not fond of much).

Robust. Slightly salty & yeasty. Pock-marks perfect for sopping up an overflow of butter and mulberry jam.

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Tuesday, July 6, 2010

how to cook sour cream and spice waffles

Posted by Hannoun at 7:02 PM

I remember a Summer, not so long ago, when a German wandered into our bundle of friends. He was on a one year trip, in between something-or-other, and had decided to spend three weeks in Sydney.

We dubbed him “German”. Or, rather, I dubbed him German (for there were too many Davids around as it was) and took him along to the beach, and the mountains, and showed him what a whole, raw chicken looked like for the very first time in his twenty-something-year-old life.

Six months later, as the cold set in, he was still with us (and would keep reappearing for the better part of the year, with intermittent trips around the place and a visa renewal in Thailand).

And every time I think of how ridiculously cold it’s getting around here (and how much colder it’s about to get), I think of him, swanning around in a cotton tee and a pair of shorts in ten degree weather, asking if we could go to the beach on account of the beautiful weather.

how to cook choc mousse pavlova

Posted by Hannoun at 10:57 AM

The June 2010 Daring Bakers’ challenge was hosted by Dawn of Doable and Delicious. Dawn challenged the Daring Bakers’ to make Chocolate Pavlovas and Chocolate Mascarpone Mousse. The challenge recipe is based on a recipe from the book Chocolate Epiphany by Francois Payard.
I’m disorganised.
I’d like to say it’s an inherited trait, but it just isn’t so.
Tell you what is an inherited trait, though: my family (all four of us) are completely incapable of sticking to a recipe.

Oh, we’ll try – heaven help us, we’ll try! But somewhere along the way, something will go missing. Or get added. Or, in my case, someone will accidentally misread 1/2 a cup of cream as 1 1/2 cups of cream (a simple error) and the end result will be fantastic.

t didn’t help that I was rushing to finish the challenge at 4pm on Saturday the 26th, with a dinner invite that started at 6pm some 30 minutes or so away. It also didn’t help that I was mightily snoozy following a lunch of yum cha, and a post-lunch snack of oysters… Hmm.

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Monday, July 5, 2010

Contact Lenses That Change Color To Alert Diabetics of Glucose Levels

Posted by Hannoun at 6:01 PM

There is great news for diabetics. A revolutionary technology has came into being to help them measure blood sugar levels without drawing blood daily. It uses extremely small nanoparticles embedded into the hydrogel lenses. These engineered nanoparticles react with glucose molecules found in tears, causing a chemical reaction that changes their colour. Developed by biochemical engineering professor Jin Zhang at theUniversity of Western Ontario. (Via ImpactLab).

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The 3-D Camera

Posted by Hannoun at 5:40 PM

This year the maker of the world's first digital camera, Fujifilm, introduced a 3-D digital camera: the FinePix Real 3D W1.

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Vulture - Unmanned Aircraft

Posted by Hannoun at 1:39 PM

Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) of United States is working to develop an unmanned aircraft that is able to stay in air for a period of 5 years at a time. It is one of the most recent inventions of world.

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laptop Lenovo 3D HD series

Posted by Hannoun at 1:01 PM

Lenovo Group Limited is a well known china-based manufacturer for desktops, notebooks, servers, storage drives and other IT related services. This time Lenovo demonstrates theirs first 3D HD laptop. Definitely this portable-theatre notebook that comes in 3D technology along with 3D polarizer glasses, it is the dream of every entertainment-seeker.

Using TriDef 3D technology, a movie can be transformed into a life-like 3D experience and you won’t believe your eyes once you view photos in 3D mode! As for the audio and crisp crystal sound, there are JBL speakers supporting Dolby Home Theater. Apart from all these multimedia features, any gamer can enjoy this entertainment machinery thanks to ATI Radeon HD 5730 graphics card. Lenovo places their trust into Intel Core i7-720QM (1.6 GHz) processor, paired with 4GB RAM and 500GB storage capacity. Like any multimedia laptop, there is a wide 15.6-inch display ready for 3D support.

Some other minor details to mention are, Bluetooth 2.1, WiFi 802.11, Gigabit Ethernet, 1.3 Mpixels webcam and a 6-cell battery.