Bammie's Big Round Fat Soft Chewy Cookie

These babies are soooo tasty and sooo unbelievably easy
to make....that even I cannot believe it....I got the original
recipe from my good friend, Michelle...but I tweaked
it somewhat...But i have posted the original here as well
as a JPEG file soooo anyone can refer to it

Ingredients

2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup unsalted butter, melted
1 cup packed brown sugar
1/3 cup white sugar
2 tsp vanilla extract
2 large Eggs
2 cups semisweet chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 325 degrees F. Line baking tray with parchment paper. Sift together the flour, baking soda and salt; set aside. In a mixing bowl, cream together the melted butter, brown sugar and white sugar until well blended. Beat in the vanilla & eggs until light and creamy. Mix in the sifted ingredients until just blended. Stir in the chocolate chips by hand using a wooden spoon. Drop cookie dough 1/4 cup at a time onto the baking tray & place a chocolate in middle of every cookie. As i didn't really flatten the cookie so while baking, the cookie will flatten slightly and spread into a big round cookie so make sure u leave enough space between each cookie (roughly 2 inches apart). Bake for 17 minutes. When ready, take them out and let them cook on tray for 10 mins and then transfer to a cookie jar or any air tight container. I by accident left 3 cookies on the open and instead of being all soft and chewy, it became crunchy.....but the ones i had put into my cookie jar remained soft and chewy, even after several days.....

Where “Bammie” Came From

People have been asking me how in the world did i get called Bammie??? Cos it’s sooo part of my name that nowadays, my husband doesn’t even call me Van. He just calls me Bammie, even in public….So it can’t possibly be a mushy name for me….He probably already just think it is MY REAL NAME….LOL

Anyway, i really dun know and dun remember how “Bammie” came about so I surfed the net (as usual) on whether “Bammie” had any real definition at all & OMG!!!!!!!

According to the Urban Dictionary at http://www.urbandictionary.com, “Bammie” means

Underpants/panties (of the male or female variety)

Can’t believe that my name means UNDERWEAR!!!!LOL

Bammie’s Chocolate Layer Cake

Well, ever since i ate that cake in Winnipeg (thanks! Diane), i now know that layer cakes are not as difficult to make as I had thought.  Though it’s probably not as pretty as what it should look like ^_^, but hey, it’s my 1st try….so I am happy. This recipe is quite different from the one I learnt in Winnipeg as I didn’t really want mine to have prunes and my main recipe idea came from this the Canadian Living website.

Click the following link to get the original recipe

Chocolate Layer Cake - Recipes - Food - Canadian Living

So now for my slightly revised recipe

INGREDIENTS

1 Cup of Softened Butter

1.5 Cups of White Sugar

2 Eggs

1tsp of Vanilla Essence

2 Cups of All Purpose Flour

1/2 Cup Cocoa

1 Tsp Baking Powder

1Tsp Baking Soda

1/4 Tsp Salt

1.5 Cups 18% Coffee Creme

 

INSTRUCTIONS

1. In my Kitchen Aid Mixer, mix together butter and sugar. Preheat Oven to 350°F (180°C).

2. In another big bowl,whisk together your flour, cocoa, baking powder, baking soda and salt.

3. Now add beaten eggs and vanilla to the Kitchen Aid mixer and mix them till smooth batter (I used speed 2).

4. Now add 1/3 of the flour and cocoa mixture and 1/2 of the coffee creme and turn on speed 2 & mix again till smooth.

5. Add another 1/3 of the flour and cocoa mixture and the remaining creme and turn on speed 2 & mix again till smooth.

6. Now, add the remaining flour and cocoa mixture and blend on speed 2 till you get a smooth batter.

7. Spoon into a greased round cake pan, smoothing the top.

8. Bake in Oven for 1 Hr and 10 Minutes or until cake tester inserted in centre comes out clean. Let cool on rack for 20 minutes. Remove from the pan and let cool completely on racks.

9. Cut the cake in the middle and spread your favourite jam or frosting in between. For me, I used Raspberry Jam.

10. ENJOY!!!

Michou, the Cat

I never liked cats…never liked them at all…but I am soooooooooo in LOVE with Michou now…..i like him soooooooo much that i might tear (ok, maybe i’m a bit too exaggerating here..LOL) just a tiny winy bit when i leave Winnipeg the following week…..

In the first few weeks, Michou was the least friendly among all 5 cats…he was always hissing and growling at me whenever i come near him…

But since I dun know when, Michou is all cuddly when he is near me….If I’m sitting on the couch, he jumps up the couch and sleep on my lap….If I’m on my bed in my room watching a DVD, he again jumps on top of me, purring for me to cuddle him…..he is sooooooooooooo adorable….

And my dogs, especially Jazz is soooooooo fascinated with Michou….LOL, actually, Jazz is fascinated with all 5 cats…..she just lays there, looking at the cats, as if they are cute little babies….she doesn’t even bark at them….if anything, it is usually the cats who hiss and growl at her……hahhaa, isn’t that so cute?

Marriage is Tough...

I think of myself as a pretty rational & sensible person, especially when it comes to love...and since i didn't enter my marriage with rose tinted glasses expecting it to be all romantic and nice, i knew from the beginning that marriage is tough...but boy, it still is much tougher than i think...

i guess it could also be that i have always been a cynic when it comes to love....my attitude in life is that one cannot choose her own parents and siblings so no matter how much problems there are in my family life, i always have no problems with sucking it up (well, of cos there are the occasional fights^_^ but hey, that's part of family life too right)...but i have always been quite clear & systematic (at least in my bloody head ^_^) that for anyone else, who's not part of my family, for example, friends, colleagues, dates and including boyfriends....if they make my life suck, i put them out of my life.....it's because i feel that this group of people are not my family so I have the right to choose...and that includes boyfriends....a boyfriend, in my personal opinion is not family so i cut them away as soon as i start feeling it doesn't work...all along, i am used to such an internal system within me....i dun like to waste my time and waste someone else time...and this is also precisely why i never introduce or bring a date or boyfriend home...until i was ready to marry jeff, i never had the intention of bringing him home to see my parents......i like this internal efficiency in me....

but what i had forgotten is that other than all the categories of people listed above, there is a special category which i had not prepared for and that is the "HUSBAND" category!!!!.....lol....the source of a husband comes from him being a boyfriend first and so yesterday, this man was a boyfriend and today, this man is a family....so i guess for a cynic like me, i find it incredibly hard to switch this person role so fast.....from someone i can dump or keep (boyfriend) to someone that i have to suck it up no matter what (family)....especially when we have fights, it gets even harder to see this person as the one whom u want to suck it up for the rest of your life....but there are so many days when i wake up and look at him and think "he's the best thing that's ever happened to me & he's family"...

so well bammie, looks like the internal categorizing system u had is not working anymore....it's ok....look at yourself as a factory.....u used to produce only chocolates so u had machinery A but now u are producing gum as well so u have tried it but machinery A no longer works as well.....rather continuing with the mistake, go out there and buy another new set of machinery that will work well with the production of both gum and chocolates....

hahha...am i making any sense at all?>???

Maybe I really belong to another generation but i dun get it why Singaporeans are forever complaining about Singapore.....

"ERP = Every Road Pays" - Well, in the first place, if you are so damn grouchy abt it, then fucking go take a train like the rest of us....Dun fucking buy a nice car and then fucking complain all the time....it just makes you look nothing but CHEAP

"Singapore SMRT Sucks" - Well, maybe you should open your bloody eyes and travel more often to other countries

"Singapore Govt Sucks" - Well, maybe then you should rise up to the challenge and run for politics...besides, before u ask the govt or the world what they can do for u, ask yourself what you can even contribute to the society or the world at large, other than with your incessant complaining??

"You can say all you want cos U already migrate to Canada ma & U married a WHITE" - ANYONE who cannot see beyond skin color, TO ME, is just plain STUPID.....nothing else...what else can i say to someone who is plain stupid and shallow? Ya, there is something i can say to these people....Go Fuck Yourself....

Daddy's 49th Day

Today (24 June 2009) marks the 49th day of my beloved daddy's passing. It feels sooo surreal and weird that he has already been gone for 49 days. Weird as it sounds, I still feel that he's with us. I do not consider myself a religious or superstitious person so I am not saying that in a spiritual way. I just seem to feel quite light hearted and happy whenever i think of him. Sadness comes only once in a very long while. So it almost feels to me that he is still happily with us.

But no matter what, I trust that my dad has gone on to a better place, where there is no cancer, no diabetes and no pain.

Traditionally, during the 49 days, children & grandchildren of the deceased cannot wear bright colored clothes, cannot attend weddings or auspicious events (e.g, birth of a child), cannot give ang bao (red packet money) & cannot even cut their hair, but this custom is now usually only observed by older generations. For us, the monk told us that only my mom and brother has to restrain from wearing bright colored clothes but as a gesture of our gratefulness to my dad, my sister and I also refrained from wearing bright colored clothing during this 49 days.

Since it was his 49th day today, we hired a monk to recite prayers for my dad. As for us, we had to prepare in advance 6 dishes, 1 soup and 1 rice for the prayers. Also, we bought and burned some paper money for my dad as well.

When the ceremony was over, my brother-in-law (hear this!!!.....it's my brother-in-law and not my brother) drove us all the way to CCK Columbarium to pray to my dad. We bought some fancy miniature food erasers to decorate on my dad's niches ^_^.....have to find more of daddy's favorite foods so that sister can bring there on dad's 100th day^_^

According to the monk, the 100th day will complete the whole event and bring the funeral to a full closure. On the 100th day, it is optional whether we want to hire back the monk to do a final prayer ceremony. Too bad, I will be back in Canada by then. I would have loved to be here praying to Dad on his 100th final day. Well, life doesn't always go the way we want it to but i already consider myself quite lucky to have been back in time to spend a full month of quality time with Dad, be here to do the funeral arrangements, be here to be with mom till surgery.....what more can i ask for?

Thanks Hubby for your understanding!!! I love YOU