i'm not sure if anyone heard things like martha stewart's recipes don't work? i learned it from one of my baking buddies as well as some food bloggers, one of which you can read her story here. despite having been baking for several years now, i haven't tried martha stewart's recipes at all so i couldn't comment. then it was after i got an ipad 2 recently that i started downloading her mags, ebooks & apps and seriously thought about trying her recipes. deciding to venture out of my comfort zone to incorporate some spices into my bakes apart from the usual "safe" choices like cinnamon, nutmeg & ginger, this recipe caught my eye.

my first time making pizza dough from scratch and i was pretty excited about it. been dreaming about a really good parma ham & rocket pizza ever since i had it earlier this year at bistro senso but i've been procrasting about making my own coz i haven't come across any pizza dough recipe that i felt i could trust (ok i promise to use my bread baker's apprentice book by peter reinhart nx time). so happened i picked up the latest copy of donna hay (yes, again!) and there were lotsa pizza recipes in there. decided to make use of the basic dough recipe and i thought it was quite good tho' it tasted rather similar to the flatbread i made not too long ago. the only mistake i made was not brushing the dough with oil before baking, ended up with burnt bits around the sides :( and since i hv so much leftover dough in the freezer, i'm gonna make a quattro formaggi (four cheese) pizza next :) btw, parma ham is REALLY expensive. at about $2 per slice, i'm never buying again!

it must hv been more than two years since i last baked bread. even after i got my kitchenaid more than a year ago, i haven't started on using the dough hook yet. i wished i had used it sooner to knead dough coz it was such a breeze to do so. kitchenaid has been my best kitchen investment so far, followed by the immersion hand blender :p those two really made my life alot easier. and so, i came across this from donna hay magazine and the recipe looked real enticing. the thought of dipping the flatbread in olive oil & balsamic vinegar got me drooling. moreover, the recipe looked simple enough to follow (not that i'm intimidated by complicated recipes heh), just that i don't wanna spend time proofing the dough for 2 hours. this one only requires 30 mins of proofing.

trying out my new glossy black acrylic board for photography. i don't think the glossy effect looks very obvious, need to try out a few more times using different subjects. and while the layering for this doesn't look very neat and the green looks kinda unappetizing, its actually a very scrummy dessert! i'm having 3 macaron orders this weekend so i just wanted to make something quick & easy. this must be one of the easiest verrines to make. no need to wait for anything to set!

recipe from here and i simply replaced the coffee & liqueur with 1 cup boiling water + macha powder + sugar (to taste).