Turning TwentyOne

If youre turning twenty one (21!!) today May 7, 2011, Id like to humbly offer you some advice, as your elder of 9 whopping years.

I know youre not asking for advice. I know Im not an expert at life I just have a few gems I want you to take with you

One: Raw honey and baking soda make a really lovely face scrub. True. Try it!

Two: Eat something green everyday.

Three: Chill out on the Facebook. Seriously. Its not real life.

Four: Learn how to sew something. Anything. At least learn how to sew your buttons back on your shirts.

Five: If your button up shirt is bulging at the boobs wear another shirt. OR, just unbutton that button. Were talking exposed bra. Youll need to wear a necklace or two if youre going to go this route. Youre also going to need to walk tall and own it. and stay away from public transportation.

Six: Make lists on Post-It notes and knock em out, cross em off, get things done.

Seven: Look people in the eye and listen when they speak. Its a nice touch. Its the opposite of Facebook.

Eight: Is your resting face the expression that you have when youre just hanging out watching Real Housewives of Orange County is that face bitchy? Change that. Try not to look bitchy when youre just hanging out.

Nine: Dont drink too much rum ever.

Ten: Dont be one of those girls that carries one of those long, giant cocktail cup around the streets of Las Vegas. It really gives the wrong impression. Youll also have to pee a lot.

Eleven: If a guy is a jerk, hes dead to you. You dont need that bologna. Eat an ice cream cone and move the heck on.

Twelve: Dont do stupid things that relate to booze, boys, nudity, and consequences. Keep it together. Drink more water than boo! ze. Slop py is never cute.

Thirteen: Whats important? Make a list. Honor it.

Fourteen: Pull your hair back and wear pretty earrings. Own it.

Fifteen: Make things for people.

Sixteen: Dont be afraid of being overdressed. Dresses are pretty and heels are awesome. But! If the heels make you walk like a robot go with flats. Know thyself.

Seventeen: Boxes of cold cereal and a carton of milk make a strange and kinda funny hostess gift. Coco Puffs and 2 percent. Try it.

Eighteen: Buy your friends random gifts its just a nice thing to do.

Nineteen: Dont be afraid of looking dumb, asking a stupid question, falling on your face, getting rejected, ripping off your shirt on a crowded street, or being otherwise embarrassed. Well be dead soon.

Twenty: Put it on the Lord. Good. Bad. Pretty. Messy. Put it all on the Lord. Now I know I dont know you like that but Im just sayin.

TwentyOne: Work hard at the thing that you love. Like really hard. Dont let anyone tell you that its dumb. If they do tell you its dumb work harder and prove them wrong. But dont rub it in their face- just be gracious, and wear expensive lipstick, and smile, and keep working.

Happy Birthday Brittany! Happy Birthday! Your friend Kelsey told me about how obsessively you read my blog, and bake my recipes she also told me it was your 21st birthday today. Um. Awesome.

Thank you for being such a loyal reader. I love that you put your eyeballs here everyday. It means a lot to me.

Lets hug.

Happy 21st Birthday!

Sri Rampai Most Popular Coffee Shop - Breakfast

As far as breakfast is concerned in the vicinity of Wangsa Maju, Sri Rampai or Setiawangsa I can strongly recommend this place for a satisfying breakfast. Thiam Hua Coffee Shop.

Maybe start the day with a black local coffee and nothing like our local original Malaysian coffee "kopi kau kau.

Pork Ball Noodle is one of the good food found in this eating house. This time I opted for Loh Shi Fun rice noodle.

This delicious noodle comes with bouncy pork balls, a slice of pork sausage and minced meat. I love to eat with sufficient persevered green cut chilli such a perfect blend. It is really gorgeous when you start putting this good thing into your mouth and occasionally slipping the soup. How wonderful life is.

The best Char Koay Teow in this neighbourhood. It is really good and I always like the fry with a mixture of yellow noodle & Koay Teow. The yellow noodle creates the exciting bites where the Koay Teow provides the soothing taste of fried noodle.

The CKT man fry his CKT plate by plate, he takes pain to fry your noodle. It is not wet nor too dry but perfectly pleasant to the taste bud. A feel of prawns, cockle, spring onion & egg with the noodles is satisfying and not forgetting the fantastic smell of the steaming CKT.

There are other great food stalls like Dim Sum, Curry Noodle, Chee Cheong Fun etc etc for your choice. Try it if you have not done so and I bet you will be back again for more breakfasts.

Restoran Thiam Hua

JLN 45/26, TAMAN SRI RAMPAI, 53300 KUALA LUMPUR

Tel : 03-4022 5217

GPS : 3.19559,101.73292

Ben's @ KLCC

Ben's @ KLCC: Round Two. Earlier entry: April 19.

Entries on Ben's @ Pavilion: February 25 & March 1.

Nasi ulam with ayam percik & solok lada. We're not the best judges of Malay food, but we imagine even a village matriarch in Kelantan would relish this. Every component was well-prepared; nothing tasted too greasy or dry, too salty or bland.

Mexican tortilla with grilled chicken & bean stew, avocado, jalapeno & nachos. A safe bet for kids craving something reminiscent of TGI Friday's. Adults might find this addictive too.

Moroccan lamb pie. Fans of fresh pies should enjoy this, thanks to its thick, flaky pastry and tender chunks of flavorsome meat laced with coriander & cracked pepper.

Wild mushroom spaghettini with truffle oil. One of Ben's top crowd-pleasers: aromatic with earthy flavors, enhanced by a tangy zip of lemon zest & mascarpone.

Dad's Curry Laksa, a Nyonya-style recipe with rice vermicelli, bean sprouts, long beans, chicken slices & prawns, served with jelateh & otak-otak. Hearty enough for two light eaters to share, but we would have preferred a richer broth. Also, the absence of cockles was sorely felt.

Lychee mango trifle with jelly & custard. Soft and sweet, chilled and creamy.

Rocky Road cake, with marshmallows, peanut cream & chocolate mousse. Delightfully, deliciously decadent, gobsmacking us with gooey goodness.

Rum Jumper (rum, mint, lime, apple juice) & Caipirinia (cachaca, lime, sugar).

Terramater Vineyard Reserve (Cabernet Sauvignon). Not the best wine around, of course, but an OK option for under 100 ringgit.

Ben's,

Suria KLCC.

crme brle french toasts

Filed under the very large category of Things Pretty Much Every New Yorker Already Knew About But Was News To Me, the City Bakery on 18th Street has some astoundingly good French toast on Sunday mornings. Its also astoundingly expensive, as things will go at a bakery with sweets like you cant find anywhere else and an iron grip on its original recipes. Their version is a ridiculously thick wedge of battered bread with a caramelized lid that requires no syrup or other accompaniment well, except maybe some crispy salty strips of bacon to make it sing.

Of course, Im not trying to make their French toast, I would leave that to their expertise. I instead set out to make the French toast I began fantasizing about the second I had my first bite, a crme brle set within a thick slice of bread, one that would keep the burnt sugar lid but gild the caramel lilly even further and set it on a base that was more bread pudding-like than, well, honestly, imperfectly soaked/dry-centered French toast. (The sole City Bakery French toast flaw, in my opinion. Blasphemy, I know!) And I knew exactly how Id do it. One thing Ive learned when making French toast over the years is that as tempting as really, crazy thick French toast is, no matter how low you keep the pan temperature and how long you keep it on the stove, its very hard to cook it until it is set in ! the midd le before burning the tops and bottoms. The solution is baking, which is brilliant in that the center is guaranteed to set and youre guaranteed to enjoy cooking it more because it doesnt require you to stand over a griddle dipping and flipping slice after slice for surely long than an entire tray of the same needs to bake. I could add no butter as a benefit but, come on, were making crme brle French toast here; this is no time to feign an interest in our arteries.

... Read the rest of crme brle french toasts on smittenkitchen.com

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Chess Pie

Every once and a while you hear about chess pie, which is a British dessert that no one in the states ever makes nor has anyone ever see. Basically, it is like a pecan pie without the pecans but not really. It is eggy and rich. Like eggnog I guess. But for some reason, it is addicting. No wonder some places refer to it as crack pie.

Chess Pie

What you need:

1 cup sugar

1/2 cup brown sugar

1 tablespoon cornmeal

pinch of salt

3 eggs plus one egg yolk

1 tablespoon vanilla

1 stick butter, melted and cooled

prepared graham cracker crust

What you do:

Preheat oven to 325 F. In a large bowl, whisk together the sugar, cornmeal and salt. Add the eggs, vanilla and butter, whisking until just combined. Pour into crust and bake for 35 to 40 minutes. Allow to cool and chill for 30 minutes.

Sweet Tea Bourbon Cocktails

Id smile at rum. Coy but not really coy.

Id say hello to vodka. Id wave, and smile with teeth.

Id totally make out with gin tonic and lime everywhere.

But bourbon. Id marry bourbon as long as bourbon understands that I often stay up until 3 am writing silly blog posts, with a scarf on my head, a shaky leg, and post-it notes everywhere. But I have a feeling that bourbon understand me. Im not too worried.

Little itty bitty kitchen peek.

What is pleasantly cropped out of this picture is my cat in the kitchen sink attacking the dirty kitchen sponge.

Livin classy.

Im fairly certain that were approaching the time of year when its reasonable to drink uncanny amounts of sweetener in cold, black tea.

It seems only natural to add fresh mint, muddled orange and bourbon.

This cocktail is simple, uncomplicated, refreshing, easy to drink, and a really lovely celebration of mid-spring.

You know its going to be summer soon, right? There are short dresses and summer heels i! n my fut ure. Oh man. I need tan lotion and tea.

Sweet Tea Bourbon Cocktail with fresh mint and orange

Print this Recipe!

6 cups water

4 or 5 black tea bags

1/4 cup agave syrup (honey will do too)

1/4 to 1/2 cup bourbon (depending on how strong you want your cocktail)

4 to 6 sliced orange rounds

6 sprigs fresh mint

lots of ice

Bring water to a boil. Turn off water and add black tea bags. Steep tea for 3 to 5 minutes. Remove the tea bags, place the tea in a large pitcher and let rest in the refrigerator until cold.

Place agave, bourbon, orange slices and fresh mint in a medium bowl. It the back of a spoon, begin to muddle (or press together) the ingredients. The oranges will release come juice, the mint will become fragrant, and the bourbon will tickle your nose. Itll smell delicious. Once the mixture is pressed together, and the flavors are extracted, add the mixture to the pitcher of tea. Stir well. ((Feel free to strain the orange wedges and the mint leaves before pouring into the pitcher of tea, if youd like.))

Fill glasses with ice cubes. Pour sweet, boozy tea over ice. Enjoy. Drink it up.