Last few of May Baking

Hello and Happy June :D

I have two baking episodes from May to update!

This is the corn-mayo bread that I made with WT. It turned out really nice! And you cannot tell from just looking that this took 24 hours to finish. Yes, 24 hours. The reason being, we started to make the dough late at night, and wanted to finish it the next day. So we put the dough in the refrigerator for us to finish the next day.

The type of recipe WT showed me to make this bread was very different from the other recipes that I have been using. It requires two type of dough, which means it requires the dough to proof 3 times, instead of the normal 2 times.

I'm not yet sure what this process of using two doughs does to the finished product, but the bread sure turned out very soft and yummy. It is worth the time and effort, and I can't wait to make a bread with this recipe again.



Well, I was hoping to make bread with the recipe used above, but I felt very lazy and decided to make bread with the usual one-dough two-proof recipe.

This is my first time making Naisu bread! Naisu is more common in Taiwan, and the only place I can get Naisu bread is from a Taiwanese bakery in Orlando. I originally thought it was cheese, but it turned out that it was made from egg, butter, sugar, and milk powder.

This texture of the bread was similar to a cinnamon bun. Maybe because I rolled the dough like the way cinnamon buns are made. The bread didn't have the texture like the bread from an Asian bakery. So in conclusion, the recipe that requires two types of dough like the one used in the corn-mayo bread creates more of an "asian bakery" texture.

There is more to learn about making bread...

As I am writing this blog, I am in the process of making french bread.
It's been years since I made french bread! I remember reading through the Fresh Loaf Website for tips and recipes.

From that site, I learned that pre-fermenting is good when making french bread. They call it "poolish", and it takes overnight to make it. I hope my french bread will turn out good. Thinking of french bread reminded me to get a really good knife to make the slits on the dough! I had trouble making the slits before, but I did have a good practice of making slits when we made the corn-mayo bread. The slits were perfect and the oven spring was awesome! Now I am more confidant in making slits on the dough.

Fun trip & My far away bread pan :(

I completely missed out on writing and reading blogs for a little while now. I have been *busy* being a tourist for a week. Busy meaning going to places and playing around. I haven't had this kind of trips for a while so it was awesome.

Sorry for the sudden change of topic, but I've wanted to get a bread loaf pan from Japan. I've asked my dad to bring it when he came back from Japan last week, but he came back with no bread pan. However, he did bring back some Manneken waffles instead.

There was two kinds of waffles inside, the original and chocolate. The original waffles are definitely the best. I love Manneken waffles, I wish they sold them in U.S. :(

Forgot to add, they are the best when toasted in a toaster !


I had a second attempt of asking for a bread pan last month, when our family friend had come to visit. Their visit is the reason why I had been a tourist for few days. This attempt of getting the bread pan also failed, because of timing, location, and etc.

Instead, I got some nice souvenirs. One of it was some kasutera (カステラ). We got both original and strawberry one. It was my first time to try the strawberry kasutera.

I didn't really like the strawberry kasutera. I guess often times anything "original" turns out to be the best.

Ah I feel really hungry now from writing about food.

Bzzagent Covergirl Natureluxe Foundation & Gloss Balm

 

Last week, I got my very first bzzkit from bzzagent!

I joined bzzagent recently, and was invited to the Covergirl  Natureluxe campaign. :D
Bzzagent allows people to try out products for free, review on the product, and spread the word about the product. It's a pretty fun concept!

I had already tried the Covergirl Natureluxe foundation before joining bzzagent, so I knew a little about the product already. Natureluxe is a new line of products by Covergirl, and what attracted me to buy the foundation was that it has jojoba oil and cucumber water in it. The shade I bought was the lightest shade out of them all, which is the alabaster. Alabaster is a little bit too light on me now, so I was very delighted when I received a shade darker, flax, in my bzzkit.

The founation feels very silky when applied to face. It feels light, but stays on pretty well. I think Covergirl made an awsome new line of product. Natureluxe, with it's "natural" concept, made me want to try a Covergirl product which I had not used for years. I really like the Natureluxe foundation. :D

The bzzkit also came with the Natureluxe gloss balm in clay argile. I really like the feel of the gloss balm when applied to the lips, but I am not too found of the color. Clay argile is kind of like red/pink bronze color. It's fairly dark, and I think dark lip color don't suit me very well. I'm not too found of the smell of it also. The smell reminds me of some lip balm I used when I was in Elementary school. The gloss balm gives a glossy look but not the glossy feel, which is pretty cool.

This was a very good and happy first bzzagent campaign experience!

Bling out the phone!

This was my project for the last 2 days. It took a total of.........................

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...............drumroll....................

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5 hours!

This is my old phone that I took out to be temporarily used until my iPhone is ready to be used. This Samsung t339 had scratches, color fade, and just looked old school. I should have taken a "before" picture, oops.

I think it's more common to bling or decorate phones in Japan, and after seeing some "デコ電"(deko den) or decorated phone, I wanted to bling out my phone also. I googled for some ideas, and went out to get some supplies. I didn't find any cute charms at the stores, but I did find some unused hair accessories and necklace charms in my room. 

The flower almost doesn't match the rhinestones, perhaps it's too bling? It was my first time decorating so I can't expect too much from myself. I had fun decorating it, and basically you can add anything. I should have been more careful when using the glue though. Some of the rhinestones are covered in glue, and doesn't look good. The glue I used was "Elmer's craft bond ultra stick all". I wasn't sure which glue was the best for decorating phones. I might look for a different bond next time. My next planned project is to decorate the iPhone case! Hope it will turn out better than this one.