Day 202 - Six Flags Great Adventure

A large group of us headed down to Jacksonville, NJ. Destination: Six Flags Great Adventure Theme Park. In all, it was a good mix of juniors, seniors and also Grace and JJ (Angela's children).

6 flags in the distance


Grace and Estee (JJ is the one wearing a backpack)

Six Flags boasted several very popular rides, Nitro, Kinda-ka, Superman and the newly released El Toro. Better details of the rides can be found on the website.

Outside the Medusa ride

I would say the Superman ride was definitely fun and unique, they actually have you seated horizontally. This simulated the idea of superman flying through the sky, it was definitely a rush.





Nitro was also amazing, lots of high drops, countless camel backs, a nice spin cycle.

However, due to technical reasons, we were unable to ride on both El-toro and Kingda-ka... which was kindda sad. I had really wanted to try El-Toro, it was an old school wooden roller coaster.

Going Down El-Toro

It was definitely a fun day, I definitely would go back to six flags, just to try those 2 rides that I missed.



El-Toro and Kingda-ka (background)

Recipe: Banana Cup Cake Ver 1.0

Ingrediants:

Cupcakes:
2 cups flour
1 cup sugar
2/3 cup milk
1 tbs baking powder(if you use self rising flour, DO NOT ADD THIS)
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 eggs
1/2 cup butter
3-4 bananas mashed up

Icing and decoration:
1/4 cup Powdered sugar (icing sugar)
Baking chocolate

Procedure for cakes:

Step 0: Pre-heat oven to 350F

Step 1: Mix the sugar and butter(remember to defrost before hand). After that add in the eggs 1 at a time, stir well. Add the vanilla.

Step 2: Mix the flour and baking powder then sift that into the sugar/butter/egg mixture. Alternate between milk and the flour/baking powder mixture. Stir very well.

Step 3: Place paper baking cups into the muffin/cup cake pans.

Step 4: To the batter, add bananas(how much is up to you). Stir

Step 5: Fill the cupcake cups to about half or 3/4 full. (The mixture will rise so do not over do it)

Step 6: Bake for 20- 30 min at 350F. When the top of the cupcake is golden brown, do a skewer test, it should come out clean.

Step 7: Let the Cup Cakes cool

Decoration:

Step 1: Melt the chocolates over a water bath.

Step 2: Coat the cupcakes and sprinkle jimmies and icing sugar :)



All photos Courtesy of PacEvolution Studios

Day 198 - Adrian's Great Adventure Part 3 (why Glenside station AGAIN)

It was a regular morning.... at least i thought it would be. A cup of ice coffee to start the day, perfect.

Boarded the train, reading the usual metro and Times magazine, finally dozing off after 5 stations.(pretty routine)

Suddenly at Glenside station, the conductor woke up me from my sleep, "Glenside is the last stop, a shuttle bus will take you guys further to doylestown!"

The voice in my head went, "WTH, GLENSIDE AGAIN!!!" Previously I had a 2 wonderful incidents at this station. First was when a dumptruck cut the power lines for the train. Second when some guy decided that standing in front of the r5 regional rail was the best way to leave this cruel world.

Trainload of commuters stranded

So I waited...and waited... and waited

*fast forward 1 hr

This first signs of a shuttle bus arrives.... 1 shuttle bus for 1 trainload of people going to work... so we waited... and waited then finally 2 more buses arrived. The convoy of 3 buses (including 1 super long bus, reminds me of the 106 back in sg)

3 bus convoy

Arriving at the first stop, the buses turn into the carpark to drop some people off. Bus 1 had difficulties getting out, requiring 3 point turn (more like 5), reason being that the carpark was PACKED with cars... duh. The driver of my bus (the super long one) thought it was possible to turn as well..... until he got the bus stuck.

Geezzz... Stuck

3 little buses started this trip, 1 got stuck and now there were 2. As the 2 remaining buses went on, I realised the driver of the bus I was on did NOT know the way, he was just following the lead bus (he admitted it to a few of us who stood in front). The day was just perfect... and in 2 traffic jams and that was just icing on the cake.

Total time: 3 hrs +

On a side note, while waiting for the shuttle buses to arrive, I went around the carpark taking photos of the cute ball things people like to attach onto their car radio antennas.

Day 197 - Heatwave *melts*

The weather is pretty hot these days, even at night. Its been in the high 90F recently (about 35-38 C). While this is similar to weather in Singapore, there seems to be lots more cloud cover in Singapore and probably cos my house has no a/c (aircon). Philadelphia has actually issued a heat wave warning and I heard officials are giving away fans for people to cool themselves off. But nothing beats jumping into the fountains in Philadelphia like those in fairmount park or the philly art musuem. (Read about it in the papers today)

Guess I gave an excuse to stay at work or hang out at Fresh Grocers(24hr supermarket) or go Tim's place to play board games (with a/c).

I wish i was like the characters in this ad, in a nice tropical isle... swimming pool... relax...

Recipe: Blueberry Cup Cakes ver 1.0

After having some success with a blueberry cake (world cup cake), I was just sitting around watching TV and pondering. (Laptop still dead) Then I thought, cups and cakes seem to be a nice combination, so why not try cupcakes!



Ingrediants:

Cupcakes:
2 cups flour
1 cup sugar
2/3 cup milk
1 tbs baking powder(if you use self rising flour, DO NOT ADD THIS)
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 eggs
1/2 cup butter
Blueberries, lots of it

Icing and decoration:
2 cups Powdered sugar (icing sugar)
Baking chocolate
Candied rice (Jimmies as they are called here in Philly)
2-3 tbs water
2 tbs unsalted butter

Procedure for cakes:

Step 0: Pre-heat oven to 350F

Step 1: Mix the sugar and butter(remember to defrost before hand). After that add in the eggs 1 at a time, stir well. Add the vanilla.

Step 2: Mix the flour and baking powder then sift that into the sugar/butter/egg mixture. Alternate between milk and the flour/baking powder mixture. Stir very well.

Step 3: Place paper baking cups into the muffin/cup cake pans.

Step 4: To the batter, add blueberries(how much is up to you). Stir

Step 5: Fill the cupcake cups to about half or 3/4 full. (The mixture will rise so do not over do it)

Step 6: Bake for 20- 30 min at 350F. When the top of the cupcake is golden brown, do a skewer test, it should come out clean.

Step 7: Let the Cup Cakes cool

Decoration:

Step 1: Mix the icing sugar, water and butter well. This will be the frosting base.

Step 2: For 1 set of cup cakes, I took some frosting, added red dye to make it pinkish. The spread it over the cupcakes. After that candied rice(jimmies) are added.

Step 3: For set 2, the plain white frosting is spread over the cupcakes. Using a vegetable peeler, I grated the baking chocolate (semi sweet) into fine slices. Then sprinkled over the frosting.


Step 4: Final decoration is just sifting icing sugar all over the cupcakes.




Final Pdt

All photos were taken by PacEvolution Studios

Day 194 - Diet Coke + Mentos

I remember when i was young i would throw a mentos sweet into a bottle of coke, pepsi and quickly cap the bottle. Then I would run to a safe distance and wait for it to blow up! It was pretty common knowledge that carbonated drinks + mentos = BOOM!!

While initially some think of it as a chemical reaction (baking soda + vinegar volcano) but actually from what I learnt, its more of a physical reaction. Full explaination on this blog.
Ok for summary of the overall explanation, carbonated drinks contains tons of CO2 (carbon dioxide), all this is prevented from escaping due to attraction between water molecules. Mentos will break this surface tension and also provide a surface for bubbles to form. Also what mentos is made of somehow expedites this bubble formation process. Results is a big boom!

Anyway these guys brought mentos and diet coke fun to a whole new level:



On a side note, I am STILL waiting for my laptop to be repaired. Its been over 1 week already!!! Hopefully next week will be the week. Gotta thank pacey for sharing his laptop with me so I can actually do some blogging, emailing, chatting and work.

Day 192 - Top Ten Weapons

Just found this video on the top 10 video game weapons. Its kindda nostalgic to see games I used to play when i was young like Doom and Contra

Well I am sure this top 10 list will be hotly debated but here it is:

Day 191 - Another Mahi Mahi

Had to use up all the fish before they spoil, so here is another one:

Ingrediants:

Mahi Mahi Fish
Mayo
Chopped Garlic
Chopped Onions
Seasoning Herbs
Bread Crumbs (I used graham cookie crumbs instead)

Step 0 : Preheat to 400F oven

Step 1 : Season fish with herbs

Step 2: Mix the garlic , onions and mayo

Step 3: Spread mayo mix over the fish, covering it. Then Sprinkle the crumbs over.

Step 4: Bake at 400F for close to 20 mins


Photos courtesy of PacEvolution Studios (c)

Day 190 - Mahi Mahi again!

So I decided to cook dinner with the fish my boss gave me

Recipe: Baked Mahi Mahi Fish with orange sauce

Ingrediants:
Mahi Mahi Fish fillet
Lemon juice
Orange Juice
cornstarch
salt and pepper
herb seasoning

Step 0: Preheat oven to 400F

Step 1 : Lightly drizzle the fish with both juice (I made a mistake of actually dipping the fish, Mahi Mahi taste much nicer with its original flavor with a light citrus taste)

Step 2: Sprinkle the salt, pepper and herbs

Step 3: Into the 400F oven for 12-15 mins or till flaky

Step 4: Get the fish juice and cook it with remaining orange juice, add cornstarch(mixed in water of cos)

Step 5: Serve




Photos Courtesy of pacey

Day 189 - Mahi Mahi fish and Mahi mahi rants

Today my boss gave me and my co-worker a huge pack of Mahi Mahi Fish. He caught those fish with his family when they went deep sea fishing in North Carolina in the gulf stream drift (yes i still remember my sec 3 geography). Pity I haven't gotten the pictures from him yet, amazing 60 mahi mahi fish in 25 minutes caught by 6 people!

I so miss eating fish, its not cheap here in the USA so we tend to eat beef or chicken which are in greater abundence and cheaper too! Well looks like a few days of fish... yum!

Well the world cup ended yesterday, Italy won on penalty. Guess it is a good morale booster for a country whose soccer league is current in the midst of a corruption scandal. Italy's defence was definitely good, but the french were were able to find ways to break it.

But i think the unfortunate incident this finals was Zidane's headbutt. Its quite sad to see him end his career with a red card. He was playing a great match, the incident with his shoulder was reminscent of Franz Beckenbauer who played a match in a sling cos Germany had no more subs left (Italy vs Germany 1970). I mean if he finished the game proper, win or lose i think he would have gone out is STYLE.

Really, quite a sad way to end it, the french press will have a field day...

On a side note, pacey used his pro skills taking photos of my world cup cake:

Day 188: World Cup Cake

After baking my blueberry cake, i chatted online with a fellow baking friend, Peiling. She made a joke comment about how i should make the cake green seeing it is the world cup.

Hence.....

The tools and colouring


Cutting the cake in half to spead some yummy frosting, notice how unfairly the berries are dsitributed?


Base layer


Layer 2


Completed!!

Recipe: Blueberry cake beta ver 1.0

First attempt at it. Improvised over a regular butter cake

Ingrediants:
1/2 cup butter (1 stick)
2 cups flour
1 cup sugar
2/3 cup milk
2 eggs
1 tbs of baking powder
1 tsp of vanilla
3 handfuls of blue berries (yes this is uber agar-ation)

Step 0: Preheat oven to 350F

Step 1 : Mix Butter and sugar, stir until creamy then add eggs in 1 at a time beating it well. Then add the vanilla

Step 2: Add in the flour and baking powder and milk, slowly. Stir well

Step 3: Throw in the blueberries, stir well, very well.

Step 4: 40 min in a 350F oven with 10 min to cool on a rack.


Done!!

The Blueberry cake


Some breakfast muffins i made on the side (do not waste oven yar?)

Day 184 - Laptop down, Laptop down

My laptop is more or less dead cos Pacey knocked over a glass of milk and it spilt all over the laptop. Kindda a weird way to go I must say, not in a blaze of glory like overheated and exploded while overclocking, but drowned in milk.

Anyway I might not be on MSN or anything so often, so send me an email at zhouar@gmail.com for anything urgent.

Day 183 - Land of the free and Home of the brave....

Date: 4th July, Independence Day

Location: Philadelphia Museum of Art

Event: Independence Day Parade, Concert and FIREWORKS display

Lawrence, Deliang and me headed down to the Franklin Institute to catch the parade after watching the world cup. (Pretty bummed that Germany had loss but it was a good match, Italy was the better team) Anyway it was a very nice parade, I shall just let the pictures do the talking:



Crowd Gathering


Very very happy Italian Fans


A performer


Performers


More performers


Cheerleaders!


African Themed Performance i think


Bhangra-robics anyone? (only Team Tesla will know this joke :p)

Spears and voodoo dolls!


/salute


The 3 of us

After the parade we fought our way through the crowd and made our way to the Art Museum, there we were treated to a concert featuring Lionel Richie and Fantasia. But the key highlight was the FIREWORKS, who cares about the concert yar? hehe

Heading to the Art Musuem


Check out the crowd

"Ladies and Gentlemen, due to the weather forcast predicting that the current rain might get more severe, we decided to cut the concert short........ to bring you THE FIREWORKS!!!!"







p.s Wayne who joined us for the fireworks also took a video of the entire event: shall post it once i get it from him. Thanks Wayne!!!!