Playing With My Photos

lately i've been intrigued by an "alternative" kind of photography. lomography, where the pictures are taken with a holga cam and the colors funky with a distinct black vignette around the border. another kind, which i'm not sure what its called (think its medium format if i'm not wrong), has got really washed out & overexposed effect. since i couldn't achieve the lomo sort of effect on photoshop despite reading a few tutorials, i tackled the latter. this one is really easy to do. what i did was to adjust the offset & gamma correction level under 'exposure' on photoshop.

i remember liking this sort of effect ever since i was very little, maybe during my primary school days. there's this particular kind of diary or autograph book where there'd be lotsa pictures like these in there - a red telephone booth, a bicycle against a lamp post with a flower basket infront, or a steaming cup of coffee near the window sill. i really really love them, even til today. coupled with some handwritten captions, i like how they give a really calm and serene feel.

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Homemade Granola

lately i've got this obsession with breakfast food. pancakes, poached or scrambled eggs with smoked salmon, mushrooms sauteed with garlic & butter, english muffins etc. and i was rather pleased with my rendition of my breakfast items, especially the hollandaise sauce. making granola is also on my to-do list coz they're really good eaten on their own, with milk or yoghurt. i usually have alot of nuts at home, especially the expensive ones like hazelnuts, pistachios & walnuts for baking plus leftover iranian dates from ramadan few months back so granola is the way to go.

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Fluffy Pancakes, Finally!

frankly, my previous failed attempt on pancakes left me feeling embarrassed much more than anything else. for someone who's got almost 4 years of experience in baking and has dabbled with countless of complicated bakes, there was no reason why i could fail in such simple stuff like pancakes (yes i know i've said that before). i was really determined to get it right and i'm glad i didn't have to wait long. i got it right on the next attempt, all thanks to this video on youtube :D i reckon nothing beats watching a video coz it lets u see exactly how its being done, consistency everything. watching beats studying & reading combined and i'm so glad i decided to go on youtube instead.

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Pulut Hitam Ice Cream

all it took was one sentence from a friend - "i'm eating island creamery's pulut hitam ice cream" over MSN one day that got me into making this ice cream. island creamery's rendition is really good. smooth, coconutty, fragrant and easily one of my favorite flavors. though i didn't have a recipe to begin with, common sense tells me the easiest way to put this together is simply to find a coconut ice cream recipe and add in cooked glutinous rice that has been presoaked and boiled to a mush. and while a vanilla bean ice cream recipe will require you to place the vanilla bean pod together with the cream while bringing it to a boil, i added pandan leaves to the coconut milk. end result was a really rich and fragrant ice cream, better than i expected but a tad too cloying. might consider replacing some of the cream with milk if i'm ever gonna make this again.

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Matcha Madeleines

i think most people would know by now that i really am a macha fanatic. i've pledged my undying love for it a million times and i just can't live without my daily strong dose of homemade macha latte, made possible with the immersion handheld blender. and while i love complex french/japanese gateaux and entremets, i adore simple french tea cakes like madeleines, financiers and caneles as well. at times when i just wanna make something simple, i usually go for madeleines and financiers instead of pound cakes, muffins or brownies. plus, my sweet friend claire gave me a really big pack of macha powder, so i just wanted to try it out :)

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Canelé Pâtisserie Chocolaterie III

was back at canele again yesterday and for a change, we had their mains as well as the ala carte desserts. didn't have any individual entremets this time round and i really really enjoyed the food big time. i can safely say that if there's only ONE place that doesn't disappoint, canele would have to be it.

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