Asymmetrical Cheese Twists

School is so soon it makes me want to vomit. I may schedule a post for Monday before I go back to school. Its okay! I won't be completely dead like last year, I will now be tweeting everyday lol. It's much more conventional to tweet instead of Facebook, but I will be on both. So remember to go on my twitter if you wish to keep updated on my eventful, yet predictable life. And sorry the majority of my posts recently all incorporate food. IM SORRY. This blog is part food blog! So yeah. DONT WORRY. Next post will be different.. I promise! hehe.

So a couple days ago we made Cheese Twists with a recipe pretty old from a magazine called "The Big Book of Beautiful Biscuits" or something along the same lines. I think Women's Weekly had something to do with it. Anyway, here is the recipe and how they went:

Ingredients:

• 750 grams of pre-rolled puff pastry
• 1 egg white
• 185 grams of Cheddar Cheese
• 90 grams of Parmesan Cheese
• 2 tablespoons of paprika (optional) We didn't include it in our recipe though.

Step One:

Preheat oven to 220 degrees. Cut each sheet of pastry into 2cm. Brush with Beaten Egg White.

Step Two:

Fold two strips of pastry alternately forming a 'twist pattern'. Take care to make them as flat as possible.

Step Three:

Mix Both Cheeses in a large bowl and sprinkle onto pastry evenly. Press down onto pastry firmly for secure melting.

Tip:

Now we had extra cheese and pastry so we decided to be inventive and make cheese balls. You can make these into any shape or form, you just have to watch how they cook in the oven. I recommend you cook them until a golden brown, crunchy colour, but depends on what type of texture you prefer.

Step Four:

Place Cheese Twists onto a baking tray lined with baking paper and place in oven for recommended 7 minutes. It depends on how strong your oven is. We had to keep checking because the oven we were using was old and the heating element was a little screwed up. We ended up having to cook them for 10 minutes. Start at 7 minutes and keep checking if theyre the golden brown colour you're looking for.

Step Five:

After cooking transfer twists to a cooling rack. and cool before eating. The crunchy texture appears about 3 minutes after cooling. If you want more crunchiness wait a little longer before you have them.

Step Six:

EAT! :9 hehe :3

Handy Dandy Tips:

• The Cheese will melt rather quickly and so you have to watch them constantly to avoid burning and that disgusting burnt flavour.
• The measurements in the book say it makes about 37 sticks. But our pastry was a little bigger so we made 21 sticks and 8 cheese balls. 1 cheese ball was equal to 2 sticks of pastry. So if we didn't make the cheese balls the grand total would be 29 sticks.
• The Cheese will stick to each other. Don't make a hassle or anything about it, you're better off just seperating them with a knife or any implement that can separate solidified cheese.

The Cheese balls we were unsure how they would cook. But the cheese inside them melted rather well, so the Eugene and Yen recommended time for the cheese balls is around 12 minutes! (on average. any explosions or harm done to person attempting recipe will not be taken responsibility by Eugene and Yen) lol.

Side note from original author:

"These are easy-to-make biscuits, from packaged puff pastry, are great nibbles for a barbeque. We've made them in a big size. If you want them smaller (perhaps to serve with soup), just cut them in half after baking."

Oh, and I think I found 'my colour' its a nice baby kind of blue. I bought a $5 shirt from Cotton On the other day and this colour I really like the look of on me. Not to sound vain or conceited or anything, but this colour seems pretty ruthless in terms of matching up with other colours. It maybe 'baby blue', but its pretty bad-ass. ooooh. And for those wonderrrrin', I got a haircut. Yes and out of great hipster impulse (lol, first $5 v-neck shirts, and now this haircut) I got a "semi- asymmetrical haircut" lol. how exciting. Its very asymmetrical when I brush it to one side. LOL. SO I LEAVE YOU WITH THIS PICTURE.

Hehe. If I don't end up posting on Monday I hope all you readers in Australia have a great start to term and for all you other gremlins overseas of some description, have a great winter and enjoy the remainder of January 2011.

Also, gettin' slack on comments guys. LOL. *hint hint*

Source: Women's Weekly "The Big Book of Beautiful Biscuits"

all photos taken by Eugene Cheung. (35mm f/2)

All rights reserved.

In Between these Seven Weeks

School for me starts Sunday night after 9:00pm (because that's the only non-insane hour of the day my parents decided would be suitable to take me back into hell for another 11 months). I arrive at school, I make my bed, change and I sleep. School starts the next day and it's hello new timetable, and other miraculous joys that accompany school. Enough of this depressing talk about being away from home, here's what I've been doing / spending my time doing these last few days of omnipotent freedom.

• Played with natural lighting instead of making synthetic light with photoshop
• Sparred with a unicorn
• Went shopping for the first time in a proper store. (not a thrift store)
• Went out to friends houses for computer mystery games and listing items on eBay
• Wrote in my 2011 goals, movie lists, websites, travel plans, and aspirations
• Eating Fried Rice

Geez, I have an exciting life. LOL. Also, these holidays I've gotten hooked to the dumbest social networking network available. Twitter. Oh dear mother of sweet pineapples it makes me ashamed to say it, but I am, a massive, raging, tweetwhore. I refresh the page far too much and my social life is being slapped in the face by it as a result.

On a more.. normal note. I've been staying at home watching Chuck. I finished Season 3 in less than a week and it's so god damn emotional. why? WHY. WHY. WHY DO ALL YOU SHOWS CONVEY EMOTION IN SUCH A STRONG WAY. It makes me whimper like a little girl. lol. Okay. Sorry this post is so long and boring, but it's just a house/blog-keeping post for all my long-time-readers just to keep them updated on what's happening in that little noggen of mine.

Sigh. One day I'll blog with a reason. Right now, it's just either Food, Photog, or Style. Why do I even bother having other labels. HAVE FUN. SPAM.

Post Script:: I will try to squeeeeeeze in another post in before school starts. When school does start though all my post photos will mainly be shot with my 50mm f/1.8 opposed to my 35mm which has taken over my 50mm as my 'prime' prime lens. All photos in this post were taken with the 35mm. (Main reason because my 50mm is light and because I'm weak and have no guns carrying the lightest lens I have is the smartest option.. ever)

OH! And watch this video. ITS SO CUTE. Cuteness overload isn't possible you say? Get ready to be proved wrong you cynical bastards.

Nocturnal Sun

Hello amazing readers, (and the lurking trolls) I have returned for another post. I nearly forgot to mention completely I went kinda back to school hopping and returned with a school diary, an amazing pen that makes me look incredibly sophisticated, a bottle of small pens and a small jar which I got for $2 from a little market inside Market City in Haymarket Chinatown.

Words can not describe how much I lust for every single piece of stationery inside Kikki-K. Not only is everything so amazing and well thought out, it's also Swedish! Which makes all the stationery have the unnatural ability to speak a second language whilst in my grasp. It's like the adult version of Smiggle (which I'm not really fond of) and makes me actually LIKE stationery.

The diary makes me motivated for 2011. I really hope this year is going to be brilliant, because I've invested in brilliant things (stationery so far) for it to be brilliant. Sorry the pictures are so dark, having a camera on Manual mode in one hand and holding the subject in the other equals pictures look like they were the offspring of night-time and shadow women.

They look much better in real life, much more exciting.. white.. and vibrant! :D

TOP ROW: AGATE SLICE RING ; CHINESE DRAGON RING ; TURQUOISE STONE RING

CENTER ROW: LARGE CROSS RING ; STAG HEAD RING ; CAMERA RING

LAST ROW: ANIMAL STACK RING ; GOOD LUCK KNUCKLE DUSTER; QUESTION MARK RING

All rings available from the Topman Website

I also wish for Topman rings to be not as ridiculously amazing. That way I would stop wanting them.. I can't anyway; that would molest my wallet a great deal.. There are so many more that I wish to possess or have in my little stone box on my shelf that keeps all my rings. But, sadly I do not currently possess enough spirit power (moolah) to buy any of these luxuries. Ahh, theres a wire look ring which I may get someone to buy, that is truly amazing. Just haven't included it here otherwise I would like to completely kill myself for not possessing it.

I should stop lusing for things that make me depresso.. because I know I'll never ever have it. Life sucks, I know. Blah blah blah get over it you'll get money in the future. THE FUTURE IS NOT CLOSE ENOUGH. ANYBODY WITH A METAL ON FINGER LUST KNOWS THAT WHEN THEY SEE SOMETHING THEY WANT ON THEIR FINGERS, THEY NEED IT IMMEDIATELY. Sigh. I'll leave you all with a picture (my new facebook picture) of blurred fingers.. I see it to be fairly appropriate since we're talking about rings and all. Eh. Hehe, new post up soon hopefully! And I will be thinking about writing posts in advance when I'm back at school, that way all who want to read, can read, me thinks.

hehe, have a great Friday!

Grandmother

My grandmother came up from Sydney today so we could do a cooking thing. She made this chinese red bean dessert, which translates back to Red Bean Sand, and it's amazing. LOL. It's the proper way :-) I made a cheese, marinated chicken, pasta (fettucinne) improvised from the recipe I got from the Cookability cooking course. Anyway, here are some pictures of the sushi I made this afternoon for lunch for my grandma, my parents and myself. I made 2 perfect rolls and 8 crappy ones. LOL. It tasted great though. Had to improvise because there was no Japanese mayo.. so I had to marinate the chicken in different japanese kind of sauces. haha. So all it was today was tuna and avocado, was amazing :-)

Oh, and here are some pictures from the first few times I went over to a friends house which I got off him the other day. LOL. We love taking stupid pictures of each other.

Tips for making sushi rice:

• Use a fan to actually fan the rice, for some reason the rice is softer and easier to eat.
• Always wet you hands before putting on the rice, after putting on the rice, and after rolling. otherwise your hands are all gross and the seaweed goes soggy easier.
• Don't over fill the roll, otherwise it won't cut properly
• When cutting, actually cut, DON'T APPLY PRESSURE! Other wise the filling will splatter form the sides and it'll be disguisting.

Oh yarrrr, and my Black vans came today in the mail. They were on backorder which I mentioned a couple posts back, but yeah, haha. Thanks for reading!

And thanks for the new followers and comments! Keep posting comments, they're amazing keep them rolling in! Hehe. 4 new followers in like 1 day. Hehe. YOU GUYS ROCK. Help me reach 40 followers :-)

Until next time, gremlins!