Kefir Desserts

Breakfast Pudding

Coconut Kefir Pudding

Our Family Trip to Ranau 2017

Our family did a trip to Ranau 22-24 April 2017, it was more than just a trip, it was a trip to accomplish many things. We started off really late on Saturday 4:30pm, arriving Jabez Resorts (former BCCM Retreat Center) at 6:30 pm, we had two Deluxe rooms booked and everyone had a bed and rooms have attached shower room, it was cozy, clean and nice. We had the whole place to ourselves that night. But we left in a haste to attend a Charity dinner in Ranau Community Hall.  The dinner was mostly vegetables (Ranau's own produce) and we just had to top up with KFC takeaway for supper at Jabez. 

Next morning, we rose up slowly and had our breakfast cooked by the aunty. Three of us, Elliot and mum and dad set off to Kg Narawang SIB church to attend their church service which supposedly starts at 9am but we got there almost 10am and found that they looked like still at the first part of the service. It ended quite late at noon and then there was a fellowship dinner as the FGB facilitators were with them. We had the "Babi hutan" for lunch.

Local Kadazan Dish

We then set off to meet with the farmer who looks after the Narawang land and met him at his house, he then asked us to go visit the land so that we know he trully works on the land, he said "Kasih senang hari kita semua." So off we went to the farm up on the hill and checked on the land, he asked for grass cutter and we discussed having a gen-set moved over.  

He said may be in June, the Dragon fruits be plentiful.

We went back to Jabez Resorts really late like 4 pm and the three kids left them were bored, they had their internet day until Wallace busted the data quota. That was how bored they were being left for 7 hours!

We moved to Masilou area (near Desa Farm) and had BBQ with Mary's friends and families. It was a night of meat, meat, meat and more meat.

Next morning, we had American breakfast cooked in the house followed by a ride to test English tea at H-Benjamin Residence, We had to visit our farm and made claim at the place by meeting up with the care taker of the land who said they have been waiting for us to come by for years! We ended up talking about plans for the land and brought back a big bag of cabbages! Sadly, we learnt from them that the former native chief of the area has passed away last year.

 It was a journey of many meeting ups with local people.

Beatitudes as a poem

Beatitudes

Blessed are you who live in a world of anxiety,
You shall speak of hope.

Blessed are you who rely less on formal religion,
You shall perceive the sacredness of ordinary life.

Bless are you who perceive "the silent sigh",
You shall speak for others.

Blessed are you who have resources, experience and confidence,
You shall empower others.

Blessed are you who have been hurt by the church,
YOu shall tend the wounded.

Blessed are you who let go of the old answers,
You are free to ask "What if...?"

Blessed are you who are open to covenant,
God shall walk with you.

Andrea Dean
Canberra, Australian Capital Territory
Source

Jackfruit Butter Cake (Buah Nanga)

When we were given a Jackfruit, my maid told me there are two types of Jackfruits and in Indonesia, they called them as:

Nanga Susu - soft and a lot of liquid
Nanga Belanda - crunchy and hard, less liquid

Nanga Belanda is easier to handle in baking, the dicing of the flesh is easier.

When you bake this cake, the aroma in the house is absolutely wonderful. The smell is even has a sweet taste to it and it has this buttery frangrance in it. As a butter cake, its very flavourful and you can reduce the sugar due to the sweetnes in the fruit.


Ingredient A
5 Eggs White medium size
150 gm Sugar

Ingredient B
5 Egg Yolks medium size
220 gm Butter

220 gm Plain Flour Sieved
1 tsp Baking Powder
1/4 tsp Soda Bicarbonate
30 gm Fresh Milk
80-100 gm Jackfruit diced

Method

1. Blend Egg white and sugar till soft peak.
2. Blend Butter, Egg Yolks till even. Add in Ingredient A, add Flour, milk. Lastly add diced Jackfruits.

Bake 180 C 45 minutes

Note :- 2 Portions can make 3 loaves tins.

Other versions of Recipes :-

1. http://www.smithaskitchen.com/jackfruit-cake/
2. http://www.goaholidayhomes.com/recipes/recipe-353-jackfruit-cake.html
3. http://artfulfood.blogspot.my/2011/07/jackfruit-chiffon-cake.html

Wallace and his money stories

Wallace and his money stories

Of the four children, Wallace, the second in the family, has a special affair with money. Its probably due to the fact that he is more interested in money affairs since young. Here are stories about Wallace and his moneys during the early school days.

It took dad a long time to decide that both Wallace, 7 years old,  and his elder brother Elliot, 9 years old, can handle money well and entrusted them some pocket moneys to be spent  at school or to be saved up in the camel “piggy” banks they each have.

Elliot being older was much more prudent with money, he ate the food taken from home and he saved up, sometimes, all of it in the camel bank. Wallace was much younger and he spent it all almost everyday. However, he always has a good reason why he did not save or save so little like twenty cents.

Story #1 

One day, Wallace came back and told mum that he did try to save but fail, here’s why.

“I almost saved thirty cents today but my friend Alex tricked me of the last thirty cents I have”, complained a very upset Wallace.

“I see, how did it happen ?”, asked mum.

“You see, during recess time, I just asked Alex how much would a pack of “Mamee” dry noodles cost. He answered me its thirty cents and he ran away. He came back with a pack of Mamee and put into my pocket and asked me to pay him thrity cents.”, Wallace described in great length.

“Perhaps, you indicated that you wish to eat Mamee?”, asked mum.

“No, I didn’t,” answered Wallace.

“Or may be you looked hungry and he felt you needed food?”, asked mum again.

“No, I just had my meehon by then.”, answered Wallace.

“Did you ask him to buy for you ? Otherwise, you do not need to pay him.”, suggested Elliot.

“Of course, not. You see mummy, that’s why I do not save any cent today.”, concluded Wallace.

“You and your money stories !”, mum exclaimed.

Story #2 

Another day, Wallace came back with one Pizza bun in his hand, waving proudly.

“Do you see this Pizza bun, mummy ?”, asked Wallace enthusiastically.

“Yes, what about it ?”, replied mum.

“Well, this is the strangest thing of all. I saw my friend holding this Pizza bun, and I asked him how much it costs. He told me its one Ringgit and then he offered to sell it to me. So, I accepted and paid him one Ringgit. The strange thing is after he received my money, he gave me the Pizza and returned two Ringgits to me ! So, I have two Ringgits after I bought the Pizza, and I spent one Ringgit with mee and save the other one Ringgit !”, explained Wallace.

“That’s impossible ! How did he calculate ?”, exclaimed mum.

“Are you sure you did not take it from him ?”, questioned mum.

“No, really no, I did not do such things. The thing is, he is quite a rich boy, I figure and he just decides to give me two Ringgits. He is also my best friend in school !”, replied Wallace, trying to explain his way out.

“Are you saying that your friend is paying you one Ringgit to eat that Pizza bun ? Perhaps its poisonous !”, exclaimed Elliot.

“Of course, not, don’t be silly.”, answered Wallace.

“You and your money stories !”, mum and Elliot both exclaimed together.

Chinese New Year "Cake"

Chinese New Year reminds me of good food and lots of endless goodies munches ! It is nimble, nimble the whole day through, from one place to another, every home tries to outdo others with their own secret recipes home-made goodies. It could be special brew of tea or juicing from own garden fruits to special fried stuff and baked goodies.


Here is the most important of all items in Chinese New Year celebrations, it is a must have, you dont make it then you have to buy it. If you can make, you probably will receive them as gifts from others who visit you.

I have modified the recipes a few times over, hoping to get the right consistency and taste that we all love.

Original Nyonya Glutinuous Rice Kuih

10 Eggs
1 litre Canned Coconut milk
500 gm Glutinuous Rice Flour
500 gm Sugar

Mix well and bake 180 C for 50-60 mins, Pierce with stick to know its done.

Remarks :- Taste really good, colour a bit pale looking, children love it. I felt its too rich in content, high in eggs, high in sugar, high in Coconut milk too !

Modified by Doria Version 1

8 Eggs
500 ml Canned Coconut milk
500 gm Glutinuous Rice Flour
500 gm Gula Melaka + 500 ml water (boiled and cooled)

This only difference was that the Kuih is darker  and richer in colour. But I still felt its a bit too sticky and the egg taste quite strong.



Modified 2.0

8 Large Eggs
500 gm Gula Melaka or Molasses in 800 ml water
500 gm Glutinous Rice
1 pack of Santan Powder

140 C bake for 1 hour
Use Silicone Mould

I made lots of this Nian Gao Kuih since 2015 (?), there is no turning back after I discovered this recipe.

Now, I made them as 4 portions size, the maximum my giant basin can hold.
It yields about 5.5 litre of fluid.
The Rectangular mould from Rebecca holds 2 litres
The Ikea Heart holds about 1-1.5 litre
The Blue flower mould (the best size) holds about 600 ml
The two small Daiso moulds hold about 400 ml each.

I think this year I have baked easily 4 rounds of 4 portions, that be 128 eggs, which is 4 trays and 8 eggs ! The costing is about RM20.70 per portion of ingredients.

You should read once thoroughly - Effective Study Method

The following article which I read from here, gave an overview of how best to study effectively. A lot of students think that if they start revising early and do revision few times, they will remember and do better in exams. The truth is that we need to study effectively in order to remember the correct things. If we misunderstood a concept, studying and revising ten times will still make us arrive at the wrong answers as the foundation was wrong. 

So here is the thing to study well and effectively is to do it thoroughly the first time through and make sure we understand it as a whole and have the correct information. Effective learning also invovles active questioning and asking ourselves lots of questions. As soon as we cover one new topic, we quiz ourselves to prove that we trully understand. Then, we learn to connect new information to what we already know. Next is try to draw it out visually, the cnocept, the idea and what we can understand so far. 

The full article is shown below. 

http://www.vox.com/2014/6/24/5824192/study-smarter-learn-better-8-tips-from-memory-researchers

The way most students study makes no sense.

That's the conclusion of Washington University in St. Louis psychologists Henry Roediger and Mark McDaniel — who've spent a combined 80 years studying learning and memory, and recently distilled their findings with novelist Peter Brown in the book Make It Stick: The Science of Successful Learning.

USING ACTIVE LEARNING STRATEGIES IS MOST EFFECTIVE

The majority of students study by re-reading notes and textbooks — but the psychologists' research, both in lab experiments and of actual students in classes, shows this is a terrible way to learn material. Using active learning strategies — like flashcards, diagramming, and quizzing yourself — is much more effective, as is spacing out studying over time and mixing different topics together.

McDaniel spoke with me about the eight key tips he'd share with students and teachers from his body of research.

1) Don't just re-read your notes and readings

"We know from surveys that a majority of students, when they study, they typically re-read assignments and notes. Most students say this is their number one go-to strategy.

WHEN STUDENTS RE-READ A TEXTBOOK CHAPTER, THEY SHOW NO IMPROVEMENT IN LEARNING

"We know, however, from a lot of research, that this kind of repetitive recycling of information is not an especially good way to learn or create more permanent memories. Our studies of Washington University students, for instance, show that when they re-read a textbook chapter, they have absolutely no improvement in learning over those who just read it once.

"On your first reading of something, you extract a lot of understanding. But when you do the second reading, you read with a sense of 'I know this, I know this.' So basically, you're not processing it deeply, or picking more out of it. Often, the re-reading is cursory — and it's insidious, because this gives you the illusion that you know the material very well, when in fact there are gaps."

2) Ask yourself lots of questions

"One good technique to use instead is to read once, then quiz yourself, either using questions at the back of a textbook chapter, or making up your own questions. Retrieving that information is what actually produces more robust learning and memory.

RETRIEVING INFORMATION IS WHAT PRODUCES MORE ROBUST LEARNING AND MEMORY

"And even when you can't retrieve it — when you get the questions wrong — it gives you an accurate diagnostic on what you don't know, and this tells you what you should go back and study. This helps guide your studying more effectively.

"Asking questions also helps you understand more deeply. Say you're learning about world history, and how ancient Rome and Greece were trading partners. Stop and ask yourself why they became trading partners. Why did they become shipbuilders, and learn to navigate the seas? It doesn't always have to be why — you can ask how, or what.

"In asking these questions, you're trying to explain, and in doing this, you create a better understanding, which leads to better memory and learning. So instead of just reading and skimming, stop and ask yourself things to make yourself understand the material."

3) Connect new information to something you already know

"Another strategy is, during a second reading, to try relating the principles in the text to something you already know about. Relate new information to prior information for better learning.

"One example is if you were learning about how the neuron transmits electricity. One of the things we know if that if you have a fatty sheath surround the neuron, called a myelin sheath, it helps the neuron transmit electricity more quickly.

"So you could liken this, say, to water running through a hose. The water runs quickly through it, but if you puncture the hose, it's going to leak, and you won't get the same flow. And that's essentially what happens when we age — the myelin sheaths break down, and transmissions become slower."

4) Draw out the information in a visual form

"A great strategy is making diagrams, or visual models, or flowcharts. In a beginning psychology course, you could diagram the flow of classical conditioning. Sure, you can read about classical conditioning, but to truly understand it and be able to write down and describe the different aspects of it on a test later on — condition, stimulus, and so on — it's a good idea to see if you can put it in a flowchart.

"Anything that creates active learning — generating understanding on your own — is very effective in retention. It basically means the learner needs to become more involved and more engaged, and less passive."

5) Use flashcards

"Flashcards are another good way of doing this. And one key to using them is actually re-testing yourself on the ones you got right.

KEEPING A CORRECT CARD IN THE DECK AND ENCOUNTERING IT AGAIN IS MORE USEFUL

"A lot of students will answer the question on a flashcard, and take it out of the deck if they get it right. But it turns out this isn't a good idea — repeating the act of memory retrieval is important. Studies show that keeping the correct item in the deck and encountering it again is useful. You might want to practice the incorrect items a little more, but repeated exposure to the ones you get right is important too.

"It's not that repetition as a whole is bad. It's that mindless repetition is bad."

6) Don't cram — space out your studying

"A lot of students cram — they wait until the last minute, then in one evening, they repeat the information again and again. But research shows this isn't good for long term memory. It may allow you to do okay on that test the next day, but then on the final, you won't retain as much information, and then the next year, when you need the information for the next level course, it won't be there.

PRACTICE A LITTLE BIT ONE DAY, THEN TWO DAYS LATER

"This often happens in statistics. Students come back for the next year, and it seems like they've forgotten everything, because they crammed for their tests.

"The better idea is to space repetition. Practice a little bit one day, then put your flashcards away, then take them out the next day, then two days later. Study after study shows that spacing is really important."

7) Teachers should space out and mix up their lessons too

"Our book also has information for teachers. And our educational system tends to promote massed presentation of information as well.

"In a typical college course, you cover one topic one day, then on the second day, another topic, then on the third day, another topic. This is massed presentation. You never go back and recycle or reconsider the material.

"But the key, for teachers, is to put the material back in front of a student days or weeks later. There are several ways they can do this. Here at Washington University, there are some instructors who give weekly quizzes, and used to just put material from that week's classes on the quiz. Now, they're bringing back more material from two to three weeks ago. One psychology lecturer explicitly takes time, during each lecture, to bring back material from days or weeks beforehand.

THE KEY, FOR TEACHERS, IS TO PUT THE MATERIAL BACK IN FRONT OF A STUDENT DAYS OR WEEKS LATER

"This can be done in homework too. It's typical, in statistics courses, to give homework in which all of the problems are all in the same category. After correlations are taught, a student's homework, say, is problem after problem on correlation. Then the next week, T tests are taught, and all the problems are on T tests. But we've found that sprinkling in questions on stuff that was covered two or three weeks ago is really good for retention.

"And this can be built into the content of lessons themselves. Let's say you're taking an art history class. When I took it, I learned about Gauguin, then I saw lots of his paintings, then I moved on to Matisse, and saw lots of paintings by him. Students and instructors both think that this is a good way of learning the painting styles of these different artists.

"But experimental studies show that's not the case at all. It's better to give students an example of one artist, then move to another, then another, then recycle back around. That interspersing, or mixing, produces much better learning that can be transferred to paintings you haven't seen — letting students accurately identify the creators of paintings, say, on a test.

"And this works for all sorts of problems. Let's go back to statistics. In upper level classes, and the real world, you're not going to be told what sort of statistical problem you're encountering — you're going to have to figure out the method you need to use. And you can't learn how to do that unless you have experience dealing with a mix of different types of problems, and diagnosing which requires which type of approach."

8) There's no such thing as a "math person"

"There's some really interesting work by Carol Dweck, at Stanford. She's shown that students tend to have one of two mindsets about learning.

IT TURNS OUT THAT MINDSETS PREDICT HOW WELL STUDENTS END UP DOING

"One is a fixed learning model. It says, 'I have a certain amount of talent for this topic — say, chemistry or physics — and I'll do well until I hit that limit. Past that, it's too hard for me, and I'm not going to do well.' The other mindset is a growth mindset. It says that learning involves using effective strategies, putting aside time to do the work, and engaging in the process, all of which help you gradually increase your capacity for a topic.

"It turns out that the mindsets predict how well students end up doing. Students with growth mindsets tend to stick with it, tend to persevere in the face of difficulty, and tend to be successful in challenging classes. Students with the fixed mindset tend not to.

"So for teachers, the lesson is that if you can talk to students and suggest that a growth mindset really is the more accurate model — and it is — then students tend to be more open to trying new strategies, and sticking with the course, and working in ways that are going to promote learning. Ability, intelligence, and learning have to do with how you approach it — working smarter, we like to say."

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.