Recipe: Brownies

I am not a desert lover, neither am I a cake lover. But I have recently found the niche of eating brownies. Especially when I first tasted the Chocolate Brownies from Secret Recipe. It was yummy.... the best brownies I have had so far. Oh, did I mentioned that I only love it in chocolate flavour? Well, if you get me anything that has chocolate in it, you won't be wrong.

Anyway, I would like to try out making my own brownies one day. And I've scout out the recipes and here are a few which I haven't try making any of them though. I don't know which one tastes better. Do let me know if any of you have tied it out.

Low Fat Brownies
16 servings

1/2 cup flour
2 tbsp unsweetened cocoa
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp baking soda
2 oz. unsweetened chocolate, chopped
1 tbsp unsalted butter
1 cup light brown sugar
1 large egg
White of one egg
6 tbsp unsweetened applesauce
1 tsp vanilla extract

Directions
1. Preheat oven to 350F.
2. Grease a 9-in. square baking pan and line with aluminum foil, also grease the foil.
3. In a small bowl, sift together flour, cocoa, salt and baking soda.
4. Combine chocolate and butter in a heavy bottomed saucepan. Stir while cooking over low heat until melted and smooth. Remove from heat and let cool for 2 minutes. 5. Add sugar, egg, egg white, applesauce and vanilla stir until smooth.
6. Add dry ingredients stirring until combined.
7. Pour batter into pan.
8. Bake 22 to 24 minutes or until the brownies pull away from the sides of the pan.
9. Cool on a wire rack until completely cool. Then cut and enjoy.

Lowfat Fudgy Brownies
36 servings

4 oz unsweetened chocolate
½ cup Prune Puree
3 large egg white
1 cup sugar
1 tsp salt
1 tsp vanilla
½ cup flour
¼ cup walnuts

Directions
1. Preheat oven to 350 °F.
2. Coat an 8-inch square baking pan with vegetable cooking spray; set aside.
3. Cut chocolate into 1-inch pieces and place in heat-proof bowl.
4. Set over low heat in small skillet containing ½-inch simmering water. Stir occasionally just until chocolate is melted. Remove from heat; set aside.
5. In mixer bowl combine all ingredients except flour and walnuts; beat to blend thoroughly.
6. Mix in flour.
7. Spread batter in prepared pan; sprinkle with walnuts.
8. Bake about 30 minutes until springy to the touch about 2 inches around edges.
9. Cool on rack.
10. Cut into 1 ½-inch squares.

Weight watcher brownies
2 servings

2 Egg
1 pack Chocolate alba
½ cup Applesauce
2 tbsp Cocoa
½ tsp Baking powder
½ tsp Baking soda
2 pack Sweet & low

Directions
1. Put all ingredients in a blender and mix well.
2. Spray 2 mini-loaf pans with pam and pour in batter.
3. Bake at 350°F for 18 min. don’t over bake.
4. Should be chewy.

Plus size fashion can be fashionable

Who says if you wear a plus size clothings, you cannot be as fashionable as the rest of the normal or skinny unrealistics looking people? I think if you are bigger size than the rest of the nice looking models, you should not drown yourself with low-self esteem and subject yourself with self pity on the way you look. Besides having a healthy diet and exercising to loose weight (if that is what you are doing), the next most important thing is just to find the right outfit for you to look fabulous. Womens fashion is an ever growing industry and no one is left out in this modern world of fashion. All you need is just the will to change your appeariance top up with the choice of clothes you wear to look good no matter what size you are at.

I used to admire one of my teacher in primary school. She's a plus size and I really like how she mix and match her outfit to make it looks fashionable and high class. Added with the right simple jewelry, it enhances her looks. Hey, even skinny beautiful people need to have the right fashion sense and find the right outfit for their individual body shapes to look good.

Skinny or normal size people usually finds it easier to shop for clothings and has many types of fashion to choose from. No doubt about that. But don't worry if you are a size 16 and up, you can still find flatering outfit for yourself at places selling renowned plus size fashion for women such as Elvi.com who expertly designed for you. Do shop around. Everyone deserved to look fashionable no matter what!

Should I quit my job?

I run through a fun test on this.... What it says for me is quite true for my current predicament though. So it says, I should start looking for other job options with better offer. Probably I should just quit and be a stay home blogger that earns me some decent money huh? Nah.... that won't happen at the moment because that won't be able to cover my daily expenses yet. Unless God made me a way through it one day, then I will quit.

Your Job Dissatisfaction Level is 32%

Your job is not bad, but it's probably not a long term thing. You're just not happy enough to stick around for too long... And there's little that can change how you feel. Start looking around for other options, but only quit for something really good!

Should You Quit Your Job?

Interesting - Learning history

This is an article I got from a friend. I don't quite like history but this article is pretty interesting. Just Thought I should share it with everyone else.

In The 1500's

The next time you are washing your hands and complain because the water temperature isn't just how you like it, think about how things used to be. Here are some facts about the 1500s:

These are interesting...

Most people got married in June because they took their yearly bath in May , and still smelled pretty good by June. However, they were starting to smell, so brides carried a bouquet of flowers to hide the body odour. Hence the custom today of carrying a bouquet when getting married.

Baths consisted of a big tub filled with hot water. The man of the house had the privilege of the nice clean water, then all the other sons and men, then the women and finally the children. Last of all the babies. By then the water was so dirty you could actually lose someone in it. Hence the saying, Don't throw the baby out with the Bath water..

Houses had thatched roofs-thick straw-piled high, with no wood underneath. It was the only place for animals to get warm, so all the cats and other small animals (mice, bugs) lived in the roof. When it rained it became slippery and sometimes the animals would slip and fall off the roof. Hence the saying It's raining cats and dogs.

There was nothing to stop things from falling into the house.. This posed a real problem in the bedroom where bugs and other droppings could mess up your nice clean bed. Hence, a bed with big posts and a sheet hung over the top afforded some protection. That's how canopy beds came into existence.

The floor was dirt. Only the wealthy had something other than dirt. Hence the saying, Dirt poor. The wealthy had slate floors that would get slippery in the winter when wet, so they spread thresh (straw) on floor to help keep their footing. As the winter wore on, they added more thresh until, when you opened the door, it would all start slipping outside. A piece of wood was placed in the entrance way. Hence the saying a thresh hold.

(Getting quite an education, aren't you?)

In those old days, they cooked in the kitchen with a big kettle that always hung over the fire. Every day they lit the fire and added things to the pot. They ate mostly vegetables a and did not get much meat. They would eat the stew for dinner, leaving leftovers in the pot to get cold overnight and then start over the next day. Sometimes stew had food in it that had been there for quite a while. Hence the rhyme, Peas porridge hot, peas porridge cold, peas porridge in the pot nine days old.

Sometimes they could obtain pork, which made them feel quite special. When visitors came over, they would hang up their bacon to show off. It was a sign of wealth that a man could, bring home the bacon. They would cut off a little to share with guests and would all sit around and chew the fat.

Those with money had plates made of pewter. Food with high acid content caused some of the lead to leach onto the food, causing lead poisoning death. This happened most often with tomatoes, so for the next 400 years or so, tomatoes were considered poisonous.

Bread was divided according to status. Workers got the burnt bottom of the loaf, the family got the middle, and guests got the top, or the upper crust.

Lead cups were used to drink ale or whiskey. The combination would sometimes knock the imbibers out for a couple of days. Someone walking along the road would take them for dead and prepare them for burial. They were laid out on the kitchen
table for a couple of days and the family would gather around and eat and drink and wait and see if they would wake up. Hence the custom of holding a wake.

England was old and small and the local folks started running out of places to bury people. So they would dig up coffins and would take the bones to a bone-house, and reuse the grave. When reopening these coffins, 1 out of 25 coffins were found to have scratch marks on the inside and they realized they had been burying people alive. So they would tie a string on the wrist of the corpse, lead it through the coffin and up through the ground and tie it to a bell. Someone would have to sit out in the graveyard all night (the graveyard shift.) to listen for the bell; thus, someone could be, saved by the bell or was considered a dead ringer.

And that's the truth...Now, whoever said
History was boring ! ! !

Gold Investment

Since ancient time long, long ago people of the past had been so facinated with their findings of gold elements in the world discovery. With the glimmering colour and high class displaying status, ancient people treated it as a status of wealth, power, pride and majesty. It is commonly used as a form of jewelry, decorations or household utensil in the houses of the kings and rulers, nobles men and the rich communities. Gold has also been widely used as in the modern time we called it "money", to purchase goods and for trading.

In this modern time, gold is widely used as a form of investment product. Centuries ago, buying gold has been recognized as a from of preserving one's wealth and purchasing power. It has not changed since. Even until these days, many people recognized it as a part of a good investment because the value of gold has been solidly increasing over the years. The value of gold that you buy now will definately be higher when you sell it later in the future. If the gold you have is a rare bullion (precious metal), then getting a higher investment value is a guarantee.

But keeping your gold investment with you at home is not a safest thing to do. It is best to deposit your precious metals investment in a reputable and trustworty independent bank or depository like Monex Deposit Company (MDC) in America.

Kitchen Appliances Purchaser - RM 120 incentive

My company, a global market research company is looking for respondents who are interested to participate in a survey for "Kitchen Appliances". It is a home visit survey meaning, my company will send someone to the qualified participant's home to conduct the interview. Don't worry, this is not a scam. My company is a well known professional market company.

Those who are interested, here are the qualifying criteria that MUST be met:-

• Those who have purchase either Built-In Hood, Gas/ Electrical Stove OR Hob, Built-In Oven in the past 6 months
• Place of purchase made MUST be in Retailers outlet (Sen Heng, Harvey Norman, HSL, Tesco, etc) OR Kitchen specialist/ Builder (like those in Mid Valley level 2, Signature Kitchen, etc)
• Brands that are qualified are : Electrolux, Teka, Fagor, Elba only.
• Dates for the interview to be conducted at your house would be 23rd October (Tuesday) OR 24th October (Wednesday)
• The person who did the purchasing of the kitchen appliances MUST be present during the interview.
• Only those staying in KL / Selangor area is qualified.

Upond successfully completed this survey, you will be getting an incentive of RM 120 as a token of appreciation for your participation on this survey study.

If you are qualified and are really interested to participate, please contact me as soon as possible by emailing me HERE provide me with your name, contact number, address (optional). I will co-respond with you on the details that is needed or a survey officer will contact you to make the date and time arrangement to conduct the interview at your house.

HURRY!!! Contact me now. Closing dateline is comming soon.

Little things to help save the environment

Yesterday, 15th October 2007 is Blog Action Day where bloggers around the world unite together to blog for the same topic.
This time round is topic about the environment.

I have always like to do something to help improve our environment by

• turning off the lights of the room/ area where no body is using at home
• travel using public transport or car pool whenever I can - lesser motor vehicle on the road can lessen the carbon monoxide emission on the road and reduce traffic jams
• going out less unless you really need to - limiting the need to use the car unnecessarily
• not using the washing machine to wash the clothes everyday as it uses up a lot of water to do so. Washing clothes 1-2 times a week or 2-3 times a week would be fine depending on the number of family members you have.
• not keeping the water tap running while I am brushing my teeth
• not spending too much time on the shower else will risk water wastage ( I know of someone who spend at least 1 hour bathing everyday )

Here are some of the few other things that I found it's good to start off with:

• If you are thinking of changing your monitor or household electrical items, go for the more energy efficient ones like energy saving monitor type or microwave oven with energy saving capabilities
• Switch off your computer at the end of the day particularly at your office. Or if you are downloading something on your computer at home and you are not using it for other things else, turn off your monitor
• Donate for charity to an Environmental Cause
• Keep your computer longer and learn how to recycle it when you do upgrade (learn more about the ‘computer problem’)
• Have more indoor plants around your computer area to offset carbon emissions from using the computer for all day long

Simple little things like this can help save the environment in the long run. If we all learn to be more responsible to the environment, we are helping to built a better future for our children and the future generation too.

Best E-coupon Search Engine

Searching through the internet search engines, there are many website who offers E-coupon deals. If you want to get a good saving deal on your shopping, E-coupon is the choice. But the search can be endless in terms of picking the best website for listing all your favourite stores where you can use E-coupons for great savings. Go straight to EdealFinder.com which is one of the best coupon site that list down most of the famous merchandize store for you. The website is user friendly. For example, if you are looking for purchase savings on buying computers, they have Dell coupons and HP coupons listed together with information of best deal offers by the merchant store. They also have list of jewelry store such as BlueNile coupons among many others.

Good lazy holiday

Friday, 12th Oct - Went to work as usual, check my Office Outlook and glad to see that there is not much work for me to do for the day. Office closed at 4pm because it's the eve of Hari Raya Festive Season. Thank God, I could leave at 4pm since I do not have anything urgent pending for me to do at work. When I left the office, it seems like I was the first one to leave that early that day. I don't mind.... just feel happy and looking forward for the 3 days off from work.

Saturday, 13th Oct - It's the first day of Hari Raya. Nothing special or planed to do because I don't celebrate Hari Raya and I do not have malay friends that I could go do house visiting. Just like any normal Saturdays, I would wake up late and spend time watching TV, playing computer games, playing with Jojo, and laze around all day long. I only sleep at the wee hours in the morning no matter how sleepy I am that time.

Sunday, 14th Oct - I wake up late and still feel groggy because of the late night I put up with the day before. I used to normally go to church every Sunday, but now not that often anymore. Seem to have lost the passion and the purpose of doing fellowship with others because as I think and think, it does still make sense that we can worship God anywhere, anytime and whenever we could. Not necessary got to be Sunday. But I do think Sunday must be sacred and joining the communion in church on Sunday morning is the most rightful thing to do. Hmm... what am I rambling here... Well, probably God will soon one day slaping me to WAKE UP!!! So... what I do on Sunday? Hmm... pretty the same as on Saturday. The only difference is I've got to go to bed early because have to work on Monday. But I can skip that this particular Sunday because tomorow is still a holiday.

Monday, 15th Oct - Feeling so good not to have to go to work today. This is a replacement holiday for Hari Raya. I love it when the holiday falls on Friday or Monday. In that, I could get a nice stretch of 3 days off from work. On what I did today, I've just watched two movies on Astro and now spending my time blogging..... The rest of the day, unplaned.

That's how I spend my Hari Raya holiday this year. Seems boring to many, but I really enjoy the relaxing leisure time with my loved ones and Jojo. Not necessary have to go to interesting places or do some wild unimmaginable things to get the kick off my butt to refresh myself to go back to the crazy working days after the holidays. I'm not that hard to please after all...

Shopping for home appliances

How many of you who feel frustrated and fuss a lot about the hassle that you need to go through shopping for your household appliances, especially when your existing household items were broken and you need to find a replacement fast? Things like fridge, washing machines, refrigerators or dryers are part of an important electrical item that you need in your home. Living in an advanced modern world, majority of us cannot live without the comfort or the convenience of having those item to make our daily household chores much more simple and time saving.

We usually need to be careful when shopping for big household items because it cost us a lot of money and you'll have to stick with it for a long time even if you bought a wrong one. Hence, it is not surprising that people turn to internet search for doing their own product research before heading to the store for purchase. But with the current search engines, it is hard to find the specific needs that you are looking for. But you can go to Krillion website which can provide you the ability to do your product research in a fast and effective manner. They provide search for good national brands that you can find locally such as Kenmore Dryers, Sony and Samsung brands appliances.

Head on to Krillion website and you can find many more well known national brands that you can find for your household needs in a fast and timely manner. After you have done your research, you can just hop on to your car and drive to the nearest store near you for the purchase. This will safe you a lot of time searching to the endless search engines which does not necessary provide you the specific local store that provide your the specific product that you are looking for. Fortunately, Krillion search engine is able to do that.

How to become a famous blogger

This cartoon interest me..... LOL.....

This cartoon is by Dave Walker.

$$$ Claimed received at last

Today I finally received the money for company insurance claimed on my hospitalization bill over 3 months ago. Although not a lot, but really good that I "earn" from it because the insurance company pay me additional allowance for 2 days stay at the government hospital.

Recently, many things happen that don't know why my money just gone like that. Have been living in a tight budget for quite some time now..... I wish this thing will end abruptly. In just another 2 months plus, year 2007 would pass away and come another new year to begin with. I hope God will give me his blessings and end my long over due predicament that I myself wish to rescue from it countless times.

Sigh... these few days I have no mood to blog. It's hard to grab on any pay post opportunities although I've been hardworking checking on those few websites for the past few days. Sometimes I missed just because the opportunities were released somewhat in the middle of the night or in the wee hours in the morning here. I don't ask for much, just give me do one post of $5 or $6 per day would be enough to keep me happy. I think there might be also because there are not many advertisers who are willing to give offer to low Google PR blog and this makes the opportunities to bloggers like me has fewer opportunities. Well, I've been trying hard to get my PR up but Google has still yet to update my rank as the same as many others who has complained about this. The latest bad new I heard is that Google do not intent to give any PR to new free blog site like Blogger. I do not know whether my blog is consider new or old, depending on when they actually decided to implement this. If this is true, then it will be even more unfair to many bloggers who does not have money and rely on free blog site to earn some decent money.