Baking & Sewing

I think cooking(well, cooking is a hobby too isnt it) and hobbies are two of the biggest badass. They just hook onto you, don't they.

I don't know what to name these bread, I didn't look at any recipes while making them, but my boyfriend praised that it is the best bread he ever had. For that I think I deserve all the credit. :P

The ingredients:
1. 60% bread flour (about one full bowl)
2. 30% plain flour
3. 10% cake flour (just use plain flour if you do not have cake flour)
4. 1 tablespoon of raw sugar, a pinch of salt/cinnamon salt
5. 1 tablespoon of dried basil leaves (you could get this in a plastic bottle in supermarket)
6. 2 tablespoon of coriander, finely chopped (or celery)
7. 50% water
8. 50% milk
9. 2 teaspoon of instant Yeast (I used kings instant yeast)
10. 1 teaspoon of oil

*Now if you noticed, I use a lot of percentages. The reason is, I have no measuring tools at home. So I just go with my feeling when I do things.

Procedure:
1. mix all the ingredients (1 - 9) above.  The amount of water/milk/flour that you pour in really depends on how much you want to make. Make sure the dough is kind of soft, it should feel like your soft butt, or just a little harder.
2. Set the dough aside for 1 hour
3. Grease a pan with the oil (10), and roll your bread to a size you want (make it around 30% smaller because it will rise later), and leave it on the greased pan
4. Set the dough on the greased pan for 30 mins
5. Start to preheat your oven/microwave at 180 degrees for 15 - 20mins.
6. Brush a thin layer of cooking oil onto the surface of your dough, this gives a beautiful gold color after baking. You may add egg wash if you want too.
7. Put the entire pan with the dough into the oven for 20 - 30minutes, at 180 degrees.

* Your bread is totally cooked if you poke a chopstick in and it comes out clean

Yummy bread that is crunchy on the outside and soft inside. The little bit of sweetness from the raw sugar makes it perfect to eat alone.

You could keep the bread in fridge for 3 days. I used it for burgers.
- Bread, beef, tomatoes, coriander = YUMMY BREAKFAST, with minimum fat, and 0 preservatives.

Or a green burger for brunch
- Bread, Beef, baby spinach, wild rocket, cheese = awesomeness!
 Wild rocket is my new discovery. It is that vegetable with rough edges you see in the photo above. But it has a really nutty taste to it, which compliments meat so much. You never need salad dressing with this vegetable. It is also super rich in calcium.


On to sewing! Ever since I got a sewing machine, I pretty much played with it all the time.
* TIPS: Get used one from EBAY.sg if you are starting out. In case you hate sewing, its fine because you spent just a bit on it. I got mine on ebay at just $80! Its BM2600. This model is pretty old, bit it does normal sewing fine. I can't work with anything too thick with this machine though. 

My mom worked as a seamstress when I was young - and one of my best memories is my dad cutting out the fabrics, while my mom would sew those pieces together and make me dresses and pajamas. To me, no amount of pretty clothes outside could compare to those that is handmade, with love.

I've made pencil cases for my sister,my brother, my boyfriend. And recently, I got a piece of leather (PVC leather). I did a trial piece of laptop pouch for myself which didn't turn out 100% awesome, but my boyfriend really liked it. and he asked if I could make him one for his MacBook Pro.

So I made one! This one is much better made as compared to my own one.

I chose a black zip go go with brown leather. To tie in the silver laptop, I specifically find a sleek looking silver zipper. (That laptop is my bf's 6 or 7 year old MacBook Pro)

 

These are the materials I used:

1. Piece of leather or fabric X (You could get PVC leather at spotlight, but use whatever you want, you could even use stretch denim! Go diaso if you want to try denim, its a piece for $2!)

2. A filler (cushion like texture that protects your laptop from 'injury'. Over here, I used non slit mat. I wouldn't recommend non slit mat though, it feels nice, but it is a pain in the arse to sew it by machine. I had to hand stitch it in the end. I recommend you to use felt instead, but you could use any fillers that are thick&soft.)

3. Lining material (This is basically any soft fabrics, because you do not want scratches on your notebook. Any cotton material is fine really, but I used satin. Satin is extremely smooth and soft to touch. It also reduces friction when you slot the notebk in and out.)

Xoxo