My Cuddly Tenants
I just thought that I would introduce you to three of my cuddly and cute tenants.
Best of pals
I love the Siberian tiger. I found him in a Shang Ri La laundry bag in the hall of the house where I used to live back in USJ, Selangor, Malaysia. I used to say to hubby that if only his tail was battery operated and could swing to and fro, he would definitely scare any unwelcome visitors 
The koala bear was a gift from a friend who migrated to Australia years ago. I have lost contact with her for some years now and hope that she is happy and in good health.
The brown lion belonged to my younger sister or was it one of my nephews or was it ... well, whatever, he was lounging around my mom and dad's so I decided to take him in and along the way, gave it to Hubby to watch over him when he was alone in Canada.
Fluffy Whole Wheat Bread
I have tried a few recipes for 100% whole wheat bread and I have been dissatisfied until I came across this recipe. The bread came out fluffy and soft. It was so good that when I took it out of the oven, we would have eaten the whole loaf if we did not stop ourselves. The recipe is good enough to make two loaves since I used the medium sized loaf pan. I use the KitchenAid stand mixer for the dough.
Ingredients:
3 1/2 cups whole wheat flour
1/3 cup milk
1/4 cup honey
1 cup warm water
1 1/4 tsp salt
1/4 cup vegetable oil
1 packet yeast (3 tsp)
*1/8 cup or more sunflower seeds (optional)
*1/8 cup flax seeds (optional)
*1/8 cup or more raisins (optional)
*you can experiment the amount you like and add in others as well
First, put the milk, honey, warm water, vegetable oil, yeast and salt into a mixing bowl.
The wet ingredients
Next, put in the flour, the sunflower and flax seeds.
Flour is in
I usually use a spatula to mix them all together or you can use the beater.
All mixed together with the spatula
Turn on the stand mixer to 2nd speed for about 7 mins to knead using the dough hook.
Dough all kneaded
Let the dough proof in a warm place til it doubles in size. Then punch down the dough. Divide into two, shape the first one and put in a greased loaf pan. Add in the raisins to the second one. Proof the dough a second time.
Going in ...
Put the dough in the oven at 350 degrees for 40 mins or so. Tap the underside of the bread for a hollow sound.
Cooling down ...
I usually freeze one since it is only two of us. When the first one finishes, I would defrost the other one and reheat it in the oven.
Raisin bread
You can find the original recipe at Whole Wheat Bread Recipe.
Bread with Rolled Oats
I found this recipe some time ago and decided to give it a try with the packet of oats we bought for breakfast.
1 1/4 cup warm water
2 tbsp butter (melted)
1 tsp salt
3 cups all purpose flour (I used 1 cup whole wheat and 2 cups APF)
1/2 cup rolled oats
2 tbsp brown sugar
1 1/2 tsp active dry yeast
1. Proof the yeast with sugar and warm water in mixer for about 10 mins.
2. Add the melted butter.
3. Add dry ingredients.
4. Switch to dough hook and knead for about 7 - 8 mins.
5. Proof once in the mixing bowl and another time in the loaf pans.
6. Bake at 375 degrees for 45 mins.
Going in for a tan ...
All nice and brown 
We also had them with homemade mushroom soup.
Going in for a dunk!
Homemade Vietnamese Spring Rolls
Sometimes when Hubby goes out on his own either for work or with a friend (which is not a frequent occurrence), he would buy me Vietnamese Spring Rolls from the TNT Supermarket as a sign of his love for me . The rolls come with a peanut dip. Then one day I thought that maybe it would be better to make it myself and cheaper too!
First, I soaked the rice noodles in boiling hot water for a bit and drained them. Then I boiled the shrimps. I then dipped the dried skins in water and lay them on the counter top to soak through. Hubby finally put all the pieces of the jigsaw puzzle together and voila! the rolls are done! The peanut dip was made from blended peanuts, olive oil, oyster sauce and a lil hot water.
The first batch we made had no greens in them...
(Hubby says: "WOOHOO!!! No vegetables!!!" *cheering*)
Yikes! Forgot the greens!
(Hubby still says: WOOHOO!!! NO GREENS!!!)
The second time we made them, I remembered the greens. All is good!
(Hubby groans!)
Dressed just right...
(Hubby wails!)
Butter Prawns Malaysian Style
Butter prawns is one of my favourite dishes and I thought maybe I should try it out myself. I did my research via internet and came across some interesting recipe and being Malaysian, I decided to try this one out. You can find the recipe here at RasaMalaysia.
Hmmm ... smells so good!
Getting Your HP LaserJet 1020 to Work with Windows 7
Ah, my very first laser printer in a long time. I had owned an Epson Stylus 880 and a HP 5740 inkjet printer awhile back. The former started giving me problems with clogged print head nozzles (I had tried to clean it but could never get it to print properly again, even with a new alternative cartridge), while the latter gave me problems with refilled cartridges. No idea what went wrong. I just know that I had spent quite a bit of money replacing the cartridges (and experimenting with ink refilling), and I wasn't about to spend another dime and time trying to figure out the problem.
So enter another printer into my life... the HP LaserJet 1020 after much research (and after discovering a source for affordable toner refills, as well as for alternative toner cartridges). Worked like a pro when it was still on Windows XP. Still performed like a champion when it finally made the upgrade to Windows 7... once I managed to get it WORKING that is! *groan* While I can tell you to contact HP for support (like as if that will be a fat lot of help when HP supposedly considers the printer too outdated to bother with a proper driver installation for Win7 *rolls eyes*), it's a lot faster and more productive for me to just post the solution here. So keep your fingers crossed, and follow the instructions below to get it functioning again:
1) Download the driver at...
HP LaserJet 1020 Driver Package for Windows 7
2) Unzip the contents to a temporary folder and DO NOT CLICK ANYTHING ELSE!
3) That also means *DO NOT RUN* SETUP.EXE.
4) I REPEAT. *DO NOT RUN* SETUP.EXE.
5) I REPEAT AGAIN. *DO NOT RUN* SETUP.EXE. The only way I found to get it working is by installing the driver MANUALLY! So go on to step 6.
6) Unplug the printer.
7) Uninstall the printer driver if it's on the computer.
8) Re-plug the printer back.
9) Add the printer.
10) Look for the driver under "Have Disk", and guide it to the temporary folder where you had unzipped the files earlier. The rest is self-explanatory.
A little bonus here for Canadian owners of a HP LaserJet 1020. You can get ink toner refills for cartridge Q2612A from http://www.inkpot.ca. I have personally ordered online from them the refills a number of times already, and it works awesome! And in case you're wondering, I'm not getting any commission mentioning this. Just the fact that I get to help a fellow human being save some money, and stick it to the greedy big time corporations at the same time, that's good enough for me. 
Have fun!
Hearts and Butter Cookies …
All my hearts ...
I love butter cookies! I remember that when I was a child, I used to go for those Danish butter cookies with the sprinklings of sugar on them. They were heavenly!
I check out a few recipes but wasn't too satisfied with them, they were okay but just okay. Then I came upon this recipe which was in RecipeZaar, under the heading the World's Best Butter Cookies. They turned out nice and buttery ... hmmm ....
