When you had to make meatloaf...

It's that time when you try to make all the meat in your fridge stretch for the entire week, or however; that one was told by many a cook that the "meatloaf" was born.

In the non-western paradigm however, the "meatloaf" could be said as something like the *"nasi guring"; where one can find the tiniest bits of left-over meat, egg and vegetable hiding in mounds of rice. Like the meatloaf, the nasi guring uses starch to stretch the meat (and others) to a sizable whole and hence, to pass off as an entree.

So, I made a meatloaf yesterday. Kimo hated it but **Milo would have been proud of it.

Observation (1) : I had better stick to nasi guring, simply because I am better at making it.
Observation (2) : I had better stick to nasi guring, and Go East (before going (back) West).
Observation (3) : A meatloaf is a meatloaf, no matter which side you look at it.
Observation (4) : A meatloaf has never made to the Chef's Table [has it??].

I've not forced my brain to come to a definitive analysis and grand conclusion, folks, but I suppose, you, too, could come to my rescue and add your own thoughts to this discussion. Yet again, never had a meatloaf? How about your thoughts on nasi guring? :) As you can see, by now, food, for me, motivates food-for-thought! :)

Enjoy the rest of the week! And for the cooking-challenge, don't hurt yourself! Go down the street and get your nasi guring from a meatloaf-less restaurant. ;)

Gloss:
*nasi guring (Sabah Bazaar Malay) ~ nasi goreng (Malay)

**family dog; a chocolate Doberman


p/s to Flory: go see Tania's Kimo photo upload - http://tiaramutiara.blogspot.com/2008/08/kimo-mummy.html - that is the soonest you can see of any of our so-called Kimo's new hairstyles.

Aloha Kakou! (Hello all...)

...time has come again... :)

...sooo...Wendell (the hubby) tells me that I should write my bread recipe in this blog.

Since, dear readers, I am still lacking in brain food for you (sorry!); thought I'll give you tips to accessing real food :)

My so-called bread recipe:

Ingredients:

2 cups white flour
1 cup wholemeal/bran/oats/or combo of all three plus nuts (sunflower seeds, etc.)
1 cup water
1/4 cup cooking oil (part 1) (this is to be added when water is added to flour)
1/4 cup cooking oil (part 2) (this is for oiling loaf pan and for dribbling on bread dough, if it wants to stick to your hands too much)
1 tbsp instant yeast
2 tbsp sugar
Pinch of salt (or two?)


Steps:
(1) Combine all dry ingredients in bowl.
(2) Add water and oil (part 1) to dry ingredients.
(3) Mix ingredients till a dough is formed - towards the end of the dough forming, try oiling your the dough a little bit with oil (part 2), so that you can get the dough to unstick from your hand :) Or use a little bit flour but just a little bit, or the bread will be dense when done.

* I would say, that in order to know if your dough is "okay already/good enough", feel the dough! Let the bread dough be soft but firm to your hands. You would have been mixing and forming dough for about 3 minutes or so. Some recipes ask you to knead for 8-10 minutes. You could if you wanted to. I dare say, the 2nd knead is probably the more telling of what bread you would be getting eventually. Read on...

(4) Place dough in mixing bowl and cover with clean kitchen towel, or place bowl in oven (don't turn up the heat just yet! just let bowl rest there) and let rest/be for about 1 hour for the 1st rise.

(5) Slowly deflate dough and start kneading again for several more minutes. Dough would be oh, so pliant :)

(6) Shape your dough to whatever shape you like. If you using a loaf pan, roll into a log, or create two or three dough balls and arrange in pan.

(7) Make slits on top of dough.

(8) Stick it back in the oven (no heating just yet!) and let rise for the 2nd time - oh, about 30 mins?

(9) Then turn on your oven temp. to about 180C/325F. for about 25 mins. If you feel the bread is burning too quickly, lower temp. 10C lower.

(10) Standard test: Tap bread to test if it sounds hollow. When out of the oven, tap bottom of load too, and all over. Smell test: Good bread smells great! :) Aroma of bread truly given the time to bake is distinct, I think. So, I suppose one would have to train your nose to smell the diff. :)

Happy baking, if it bombs, let me know! :( If it makes your day, let me know too :)

Time has come again for that once-a-week post...

Hello readers,

I really don't have much of an inspiring thought to offer, but I am 'inspired' by the thought that I had better post at least once-a-week in order to justify: (1) why this blog is up in the first place (so-called a place to write musings and words to the wise), (2) Tania's incessant request to put up blogs [so that she could make money out of me!], and (3) to play around with colours and wall-papers of the cyber kind (don't you love to mix and match templates on this thing ;)).

If anything was 'fun' in my day today (yes, it was that kind of day - all work and no play); it was the fact that the books that everyone-forgets-to-bring-back-for-me have finally arrived. In the books' box were a bunch of vital linguistics reference that I need for my current project and miscellaneous stuff that were interesting, as they, well, 'define' the non-work me.

The miscellaneous were:

(1) Chinese Astrology
(2) Bread Baker's Bible
(3) Gary Larson comics (supposedly in the box, said the box-packer; but of course, they are "kana salut" (snatched) already)

In 'Chinese Astrology', I read that the "Ten Dog Likes" are:

1. Detective novels - yes, super agree!
2. Anything arcane - I had to look up 'arcane' and yes, agree (arcane=of the mystical)
3. Horror movies - yes, super agree! Which reminds me of the time, when I tricked Wendell into watching the horror movie with Halle Berry in it (I told him only after I bought tickets! ;)) (yes, he hates horror movies)
4. Learning about other cultures - yes, super-duper agree!
5. Natural fabrics - ditto
6. Reunions with old friends - the theme of my life!
7. Silver jewellery - how did the astrologer know?!
8. To remember birthdays - yesss...
9. Things occult - yessssss...
10. Writing letters to friends - yesssssssssss...emails included.

Since I wasn't able to re-read any Gary Larson comics (actually, they are Wendell's miscellaneous fave and good stuff), I perused through my bread book. For a baking nut like me, it was sooo fun :) So much so, that I produced a loaf in my small oven. Crisp out and soft in; the loaf did quite well despite my shortcomings - I forgot to adjust heat and oven was only heating at the bottom.

So there goes the day...

To recap - I guess the keyword is being "fulfilled". And a chat with Wendell this morning illuminated that one is happy when he or she is or can be easily fulfilled. My ten dog likes seem to help me do the trick, and if not, a humble loaf of bread could.

How about you? :)