Me time...

 

quilting time mean me time !, while wife taking over a dinning table mean no dinner tonite. LOL - should I send hubby and kid going to McD for dinner  ? No doubt, my daughter will have 'dora dancing' , *she wish ..  I send her for McD meal .. :O*

Anyway, this is a big quilt blanket I ever make, made me move my sewing machine from basement to dinning table.. jeezz.. and than I did boring job ever, sewing vertical and horizontal line for at least twin bed size blanket. And I can say ... I won't do this no more :p

Meringue is..

 

I might not pay attention, when my husband talked to me. I was busy baking, and he said : 'why don't you bake cookies that the taste so airy and melted on mouth?'

No idea, what he's talked about. I just ignore him, until yesterday, I saw that I had tons of left over white eggs from baking layer cake on fridge. And remember what my hubby said, 'aah.. may be he want this cookies, meringue..but can't tell what the name is'

I made several batch of cookies, and serve for him for afternoon snack. With hand full of meringue, he said : "No, not this one, the one that you made and everybody like it.. that you put filling in the centre" OOOOOOH...!! I know what he mean, he want 'Macaroon'

Jeez, who didn't pay attention than ? Him ? who always like to eat my cookies but don't care with the name of cookies or me ? with many things on mind .. LOL ..

Ok, never mind, after all, he like it, my daughter like it.. next time I bake again.

Indeed, meringue is so light, so airy, can't stop eating this.. so somebody must to blamed !
Meringue Kiss Cookies
Ingredients:

4 eggs whites
1 cup sugar
pinch of tartar, (can substitute with lemon juice)
1 teaspoon of vanilla extract
Food coloring/dye of your choice

Directions:
Line to bake sheets with parchment and heat oven to 225 F

Place sugar, egg whites and tartar in a bowl over (not on) simmering water. Constantly whisk the egg whites until the sugar has dissolved.

Pour the egg mixture into a clean bowl. Using a whisk attachment on a stand mixer or a hand held mixture, slowly beat egg mixture. Add in vanilla extract and any food coloring if you are using it. Gradually increase speed and continue to beat mixture until stiff peaks have almost formed. Mixture is ready when whisk attachment dipped into mixture leaves a curled but stiff peak when removed.

Transfer mixture to a pastry bag fitted with a close or open star tip or what ever design you prefer, making sure to set them one inch apart from one another. Bake at 225 degrees F for 45 minutes, then turn off oven and leave the door slightly ajar for meringues to cool down with the oven. Store meringue cookies in an airtight container away from any heat or moisture. Alternatively, store them in the freezer where they can be enjoyed straight from the freezer without any defrosting

Lapis Legit Prunes

Aaah.. finally, I can tell you, 2 hours baking ? worth it !! Well, this is the MUST cake at ours home for Eid Fitri Festive. My hubby favorite's Indonesian cake ever. I introduce him for the first time when he met me, long time ago. Since than he fallen in love with this cake. But I bake this for special occasion only, too much work..

Lapis Legit Prunes

Source : Yasaboga

Ingredients :
300g butter
200g margarine
3 Tbs sweetened condensed milk
1 Tbs spekkoek spice  (make your own : ground cinnamon, nutmeg, cardamom, and clove)
100g plain flour
350g caster sugar
30 egg yolks
½ tsp vanilla

prunes, thin slice if you use
 

Directions :
Beat the butter and margarine until fluffy and pale. Add in the sweetened condensed milk.

Beat until well mixed. Beat the egg yolks, sugar and vanilla until thick and pale. Whisk in the butter mixture one spoon at a time, mix well. Fold in the sifted flour and spices, mix well. Prepare a square cake tin 22x22cm, line with baking paper. Spoon the batter into the tin, 3 Tbs at a time, level the surface. Bake first layer with oven temperature reach 350 F until golden brown. Change the setting to grill / broil low heat. 

Spoon in 3 Tbs batter on to the first layer, level. Bake for about 3 minutes or until the surface is golden brown. After 3 layers add slices of prunes, remove and repeat the process until all batter is used. Remove from the oven and let cool on the wire rack.

Note to my friends, visitor, fellow blogger :
Maybe this is my last posting before Eid Fitri Festive, I would like to say :

A very Happy Eid Mubarak to you and your families. 
"Taqaballa Allahu mina wa minkum Al-‘Amal Al-Saliha”

May Allah accept from you and us the good deeds

needle..stitches..baking..special day..

 

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I'm doing hand quilting stitches, while baking a spekoek layer cake - the MUST cake I need to bake for a special day.

So, how do you like this handcraft so far ? .. this is my first time doing hand quilting, It's fun. I will come back to post the final result and the cake maybe .. :)

Donut Cookies

 

It's almost the end of Holy Month Of Ramadan, is always become a sad day while we no longer in Ramadan Month . Because we never know when we will meet a full of blessing days like Ramadan Month.

And I'm sure almost Moslem's families around the world especially ladies, moms, daughters, aunties busy around the kitchen. They are busy preparing many stuff before Eid Fitri Festive comes, especially baking a good goodies .. Oh, My, it's always remind me how busy my mom was. And even until today. She is still the best cook ever.

Well, I bake too .. but not as much as my mom does. Not many family around us to celebrate the happy day after Ramadan. So, I just bake a little portion of cookies or cake, in case we have friend visit. Mostly I stick with 'an original' , old times cookies style such a nastar (ananas tart), sagu keju etc. But since I have a little girl who loves to help around the kitchen, I bake a little different cookies, so she can help easily too.

Like donut cookies, it's pretty easy for 6yo girl making without worry about messy around the kitchen.

Donut Cookies
Adapted from : King Arthur's Flour Recipe Collection

Dough
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
3 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted
2 large eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
3/4 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 cup confectioners' sugar
2 1/2 cups Unbleached All-Purpose Flour

Icing
1 cup (4 ounces) confectioners' or glazing sugar
4 teaspoons milk
4 teaspoons light corn syrup

I'm not used icing sugar but chocolate icing - taste much better for my style.
- chocolate melted and white chocolate melted for topping

Beat together the oil, butter, eggs, vanilla, salt, baking powder, and sugar until smooth. Add the flour, beating until smooth. Refrigerate the dough for at least one hour, or overnight.

Scoop the dough into 2-teaspoon-size (1/2-ounce) balls; a teaspoon cookie scoop works perfectly here. Roll the balls into logs about 4 inches long and about 1/2-inch in diameter. Coil into doughnut shapes, leaving a small hole in the middle.

Place the shaped cookies on lightly greased baking sheets, leaving about 1 inch between them. Bake them in a preheated 350°F oven for about 15 minutes (original recipe said : 18minutes, but I find it that made cookies become hard to chew, so just reduce the baking time like mine). They may have the merest hint of golden color on top, but they definitely won't be brown. Remove them from the oven, and transfer to a rack to cool completely before icing.

To ice the cookies - if you use icing like an original recipe

- Put 1/4 cup confectioners' sugar into each of four bowls. Add 1 teaspoon milk and 1 teaspoon corn syrup to each bowl. Stir until you've made a soft, spreadable icing, adding more milk if necessary. Tint the icing in each bowl a different color. Dip the top of each cookie in one of the icings. Sprinkle with sugar decorations. Allow the frosting to harden before storing the cookies.

- or just simple melted enough chocolate or white chocolate into double boiler pan, and dip the cookies on melted chocolate. Sprinkle with sugar decorations.



Yield: 3 1/2 dozen cookies

Another Happy Colors..

I don't have any sewing skill background, I never attend sewing class or what so ever, I proud to say that I'm self taught sewing who learn from many mistake. It take me a while to figure out all the steps. And until today I still learn from everywhere. Including, Youtube. Yeaah right, I'm graduation student from Youtube :O But so far, I'm happy with every result.  And I definitely make quilts to be loved and used, not show quilt. The lady who order this picnic blanket just want a happy colors. My idea about happy colors is to put as many bright pretty colors as I can. I hope she will like it.

I spy in the garden picnic blanket is a custom order picnic blanket , with size 40x48inch. (Reserved - ready to send to France this week)   SOLD
And here is another blanket I finished 2 weeks ago. The lady who got this blanket was so happy. I called this : Sweet Water Picnic Blanket - size 37x49 inch, 100% cotton from  MODA  and Robert Kaufman fabric collection

Have a nice day.. and enjoy the picture