When the Modem Broke Down....

Lately, I had been having too many problems with internet connection at home.
First, it was streamyx connection problem. Then 2 days after that was solved, our wireless router starting giving problem. We had to switch back to the unstable old router. Just as dear hubby was about done fixing the wireless router, the modem pulak went kaput!
Now, we are on modem loan from my SIL - Nini. But the wireless connection is still intermittent. Fed up le teman!

When the modem broke down...

• I can't continue my Challenge Sudoku with Elisa (and other friends)
• Browsing internet is painful at home
• I had to steal some time at the office to check on messages at FB
• I end up playing Sudoku on papers only:-(

BUT....I ended up

• getting some progress on my curtain's goblet heading (almost 2 yrs sangkut)
• AND..I'm back to Korean drama ...:-) ha ha...preparation for my Korea trip this coming Dec (alasan je tuh!)

*sigh*...I hope it'll resolve soon

NOT an Easy Peasy Breadstick

Tonight I venture into a baking session for cheese pizza (mainly because there's only cheese in fridge) and kids-loved-it breadstick(supposed to be pizza hut style).

I found the breadstick recipe by "Chef Dee" at recipezaar.com(http://www.recipezaar.com/137629) sometime ago. The kids love pizza hut's breadstick so, more to save cost and also allow them to eat to their heart content, I looked for the recipe and try to make ones. Finally, after few trials, I got this recipe that really suit to their taste. Of course, i had to improvise the recipe as I do not own a bread machine.

The dough, after I had cut and placed them on the tray, prior to bake

Here's the recipe (after modification)
Mix all of these together:
4 cups of high protein flour (bread flour)
1 tsp salts
2 tsp instant yeast
2 tsp oregano
3 tbsp milk powder (I love to put extra - 1 "bumbu" tbsp)

Put all these ingredients in your mixer. Use the hook meant for bread. You might want to reduce the proportion to half if you're not using high power mixer (I burnt 3cheapo mixer motors - even one that is supposed to be about 500W. Once all of them had mixed, add on 1 1/3 cups of warm water (you might want to go slower on this, dont put them all at once. Add on about half of the cup and then slowly add the rest of the liquid until you get them all to mix.
Then add 3 tbsp olive oil and let it mix well. Let the mixer knead the dough for about 5 minutes more until the dough becomes smooth. Then put the dough into airtight container and let it rise till double for about 1 hr.

Once the dough had risen, roll them onto a floured surface, into rectangle shape. Cut them out using pizza cutter to the size that you like and transfer them onto greased baking tray.
Let it rise for another 30 - 45 minutes. Then you can use the topping as recommended by the recipezaar or just spoon some original traditional prego (the tomato one) on it and put mozarella shredded cheese on top of it. It'll taste like pizza stick. The original topping was to mix all of these listed ingredients below and shake it onto the breadstick (after you had greased them with olive oil)
2 tsp dry parmesan cheese,1 tsp garlic powder, 1 tsp onion powder, 1 tsp oregano. You can place them into a shaker (or re-use the oregano container) and shake on top of the dough. Bake them at 180degreeC for about 15 minutes or until done. The dough is very soft even when it is cold (if you get the dough done correctly la..)

You'd need to place the bread on wire rack to keep the bread fresh

Fruit of labor...:-)

1st Trip to Kota Kinabalu

ps: the picture arrangement didn't turn out the way I want it to be...haven't master this blog's layout yet...

My new work in another company has gotten on the move, almost every month. I guess I will be seeing more Malaysia now than I ever was. Probably this'll give me more ideas on where to bring the family for next vacation

KK is the 3rd site on my schedule that I had to visit and do the health risk assessment. I do not know what to expect but I do look forward to the trip , more because I will be meeting my long-time-never-see friend, Patricia G. Plus, Sapangar Bay (the site I was supposed to go to) was made known to me as a beautiful place to see. Of course, there's another goal that I have to achieve this year to be counted in my deliverables for this year.

The plane ride to KK from KLIA took about 2hrs and 40 mins. I get my preference seat on the front wing at window - that allows me to start snapping. I love watching the clouds. They're soo white and pure. And with polarizing filter, the shots captured looks so much better.

When we reached KK, the scenery gets much better and the sky are bluer than you'd ever seen on the city of Kuala Lumpur. The town is actually build along the sea side. I managed to capture few shots before the stewardess came and stop me "No electronic should be turned on". This is something that I dont really understand - camera do not have any transmitting device, why the restriction on camera?

I stayed at Le Meridien, KK. It is right in the heart of the city, with fruits and craft markets across the street. We can see the harbor from the hotel. They put me in the room at city view but from the window, I could actually see the see. The hotel wasn't that great but the room is definitely nice. Food - so-so. I had to dine in the hotel mainly because I was too tired to be advanterous and eat out but also more for convenient. Since I'm traveling on actual, what the heck, bantai je la kat hotel. Internet connection is complimentary but, a big BUT here... it surely can discourage you from using it. VERY SLOW.

Took another picture from the room - looking further in the sea .. it's actually near the fisherman's pier. But behind the restaurant, the view are breathtaking. Unfortunately, I only discover this on the last day of my stay there, well, I only stayed there for 2 nights only.




The Phillipines Market
I took the first trip to the market on my first night there. Heard that it closed at 6pm but when we (a colleague and I) reached the hotel from Sapangar about 6:30pm, some shops are still opened. So, we went there just to look around first and survey the bargains and prices. On the second night, I went there with a goal in mind - need to get some cheap pearl bracelets and brooches for the children - price, less than RM30 for the bracelet. I did accomplished that. Actually bought 4 pieces for RM90. They're all fresh water pearl. The girl in the shop demonstrated to me on how if you try to scratch the pearl with scissors, no colors will come out but with plastic, many things will come out. Ok, that's indication enough. After that - we went to the local produce next door and bought ikan bilis (anchovies). Those are pretty cheap - 1kg of ikan bilis, good one, for about RM15. The dried prawn is also quite cheap.


Phillipino or Craft Market next to local produced market

I also got myself some terubuk masin sarawak. Apparently, there are Terubuk Sabah and also Terubuk Sarawak. Terubuk Sarawak supposed to be nicer, less salty, all the stuffs inside the fish had already been removed. But Terubuk Sabah did not removed anything and the stuffs inside the fish now becomes salt and makes the fish more salty than Sarawak ones. The picture on the left is Terubuk Sarawak and the right one is Sabah's

To Sapangar Bay
The ride to Sapangar Bay was quite long, about 35-45 minutes from KK, depending on the traffic. We left early, at about 7:30am so, it was ok. We got there in a little bit over half an hour. The scenery going there was calm and soothing to the eyes. I would not say breathtaking but it did make you feel a little bit "wow" with Allah's creation.
From now on... I would make short pictorial description of what I see on the road to Sapangar Bay. I managed to actually take pictures while the taxi was moving on my last morning there.

Menara Tun Mustapha from far

Here it is once we arrived - about 10 minutes later

Another view is the mosque. From far it looked like the mosque is on the left side of the road, really next the beach, but it was really quite a distance and on the right side of the road, a distance away from the beach. Amazing. It must have been curvy road

One thing that really amazed me was a flat that we passed by, closer to Sapangar Bay. The water tank is blue and all are outside the house. My best bet is that they're at the back. I had never seen such sight in Semenanjung yet. I dont know if this is the new way of putting in water tank. My good old DBKL flat has small water tank inside the house. I know some apartment's water tank is on the roof somewhere, but never have I seen anything so visible as this.

The days had been really wet in the evening, I didn't get a chance to get a glimpse of the summit of Mount Kinabalu. There was a place near Sapangar Bay that we can really see a nice view of the summit, however, when I was there, it was all clouds. So, no luck. But finally, when we reached the airport at 5:30pm, we can see the summit from there. Not a clear one, but still ..better than nothing. Here's pictures of the summit from the new airport. Overall, this is one good trip. I would definitely want to come back with the troops someday...




Oh! I forgot to mention, I met my long-time-never-seen friend in KK - Patricia and her 9 yrs old daughter. The last we met was while I was still studying Chemistry in Madison 16 or 17 years ago. How time flies. But she didn't really changed much. Still the same look, same smiles, maybe her face has a little bit more flesh than before but still as beautiful as ever.