SiewGee. Switch. Atsuki.: May 2009

Wednesday, May 27, 2009

Fun with Photoshop

I wanted to add some colors to my blog to welcome spring, so I started looking through some of the photos that I took and did a little bit of editing with Photoshop.

However, the final result doesn't really reminds me of spring so I decided not to use this as a picture for my blog header.

I shall keep this for fall instead :)

Monday, May 25, 2009

What a "Surprise"

I had been thinking hard about what's the best birthday present for Mas...

A watch? No

A purse? Noo

A handbag? Nooo

I wanted to get something that is more...special. Since I had lots of free time, I went online to search for gift ideas but nothing really stood out.

Two days ago, I suddenly had a craving for cheesecake and at that moment, I decided to make tiramisu because both of us enjoy this dessert a lot. Since Mas would be going to Mackinac Island during this weekend, it would be the prefect time for me to make the tiramisu at home and give her a surprise when she comes back.

I googled the recipe and finally decided on one that seemed pretty easy and good. I don't have a lot of experience in baking and since tiramisu doesn't require any baking, I thought it was a safe choice.

The next day, I went off to Krogers to get the ingredients. I found everything except for the most important Mascarpone Cheese. At first, I thought of substituting it with cream cheese (as some of the websites suggested) but didn't wanna spoil the taste. Again, I googled and discovered that I could get the cheese from Whole Foods Market. Without any delay, I went there and found what I was looking for.

Finally, everything was ready and I was excited to make my first tiramisu.

Can't wait to transform all these into a heavenly dessert

The ladyfingers were carefully arranged at the bottom of the pan

Another view of the bottom layer

It was only when I tried to pour a layer of the cheese mixture on top of the ladyfingers that I realized that something was wrong with the mixture. The mixture was too watery!!! One of the ladyfingers was even floating on the mixture (They were supposed to stay at the bottom). I tried to fix the mixture by adding more cheese but it was still too...liquid. I was busy fixing it I didn't take a picture of the mixture. At the end, I decided to just finish up with the layering and hopefully, after refrigerating it, the mixture would harden...

Unfortunately, after 2 hours of refrigerating, the mixture was still watery...and you can see 2nd layer of floating ladyfingers from the picture above.

Honestly, I didn't expect this to turn out to be such a disaster. I am really disappointed. I guess now I need to think of a Plan B for Mas and also I need to decide on what to do with this "tiramisu". Should I stick it into the freezer and try to turn it into ice cream instead?

Sunday, May 17, 2009

"For today, good bye. For tomorrow, good luck. Forever, Go Blue!"

President Mary Sue Coleman ended her commencement speech with these words of encouragement.

Time flies. It seems like only yesterday when I came to the states. I can't believe that I've graduated from the University of Michigan. People always ask if I am excited that I'm finally done with school? I try to search for the right word to describe my feelings- excited, sad, relieved- but I can find no single word that best describes how I feel. It's a mixture of everything.

I have been editing this post for a few times but I still can't put things together...probably because I haven't been blogging or writing for a while and I have too much to say that I find it hard to hold and write everything coherently. I guess I'll leave the rest for another post then...hopefully.

As for now, I shall just stick to our commencement on 5/2/2009.