Ad: Harry Potter Marathon / Sleepover Party!!

Hi everyone! I have a confession: the writers here at The Awesome Project are all big nerds deep down. And when I say big nerds, I really mean like full-on geeks! Hahaha! No kidding! We're just short of dressing up as the characters from movies we love hahhahh! With that secret out, you should know that we spent a lot of time over the last few years discussing themed movie marathons. A Harry Potter marathon was a no-brainer because we all basically grew up watching/reading Harry Potter (or well, some of us did!). Admittedly, I have never been much of a Harry Potter fan. I suppose it's because I never read the books and wasn't that big of a fan of the movies - not to mention I am a die-hard Lord of The Rings (LOTR) fan! However, I was open to the idea of spending many many many hours with my favourite girls and was also open to letting the movies convert me into a fan!

After years and years of saying (repeatedly) "OMG WE SHOULD DO A HARRY POTTER MARATHON" and "OMG WE SOOOO SHOULD!" we FINALLY did it! And honestly it could not have gone any better. It was amazing - all thanks to Aiysha! She put so much effort into preparing for the marathon and it really showed! Seriously everyone, just brace yourselves to be blown away by the photos (unfortunately I have to apologise for the quality of the photos - had nothing but my phone with me). I mean I was completely shell-shocked because I thought we were just going to go over to her place and watch the movies.

I couldn't have been more wrong. She had decorated her room with everything Harry Potter - newspaper clippings featured in the movie, Quidditch posters and so on. She even had bird cages with owls in them all around her room!

The best part was the candy bar she had set up in her room! It was blooming awesome! She had Harry Potter themed candy and placards that describe the candy too! She had chocolate frogs that she bought from the Harry Potter in Singapore (if I'm not mistaken) and she had Bertie Bott's Every Flavour Beans, too! The rest of the yummy candy were carefully selected to match the Harry Potter theme! I mean everything was just so well thought out - it was so cool! Very pretty to look at! The best part was the Snitch Pops that Aiysha baked! She actually made Quidditch-themed cake pops. Not only did they look super cute, they tasted SO GOOD too! Ok ok I know you're dying to see the photos so here they are!

The candy bar before it was completely set up

Aren't the placards just so cute and smart?

Look at the sugar quills and jelly beans and adorable bird cages!

The chocolate frogs!

The delish snitch pops!

The completed candy bar! Heavenly!

So are you all loving the photos? Seriously these photos that I took did no justice to how amazing it looked in reality. I wish I brought my DSLR but oh well, maybe at the next themed marathon? Anyway, we also had a British-themed meal! We had fish & chips courtesy of Far and shepherd's pie courtesy of Aiysha! Everything was really yummy! As for drinks, what better drink to go with our meal than butter beer just like in Harry Potter? Nothing tops that! Aiysha actually googled for recipes and made butter beer! To be honest, at first I had no idea what it was (lol, sorry, still new to this Harry Potter stuff!), but I really liked it! It tasted like caramel and I LOVE caramel. I brought maggi goreng with (chicken) meatball haha! I know - definitely not British and so typically Malaysian! Woops! Unfortunately we were so hungry that we didn't take any photos of our food (awww). I did manage to snap a photo of the butter beer though! Yay!

Absolutely delicious and addictive butter beer!

We had so much fun watching the movies! I unfortunately fell asleep halfway through the 3rd movie. The next morning we continued watching the 4th movie and I stayed until only the 5th (boo!) :( because I had to go home. The rest managed to watch til the end though so yayyyyy! I'm happy to say that after the marathon and even though I didn't finish watching all the movies, I am now a budding Harry Potter fan! I'm not a complete geek yet, but I'm a fan all the same ;)

I'm afraid I have to start winding down this post though - I've pretty much summed up the events of the night. We spent hours talking and laughing (somehow) while watching the movie. Seriously enjoyed every bit of the marathon/sleepover and I cannot wait for the next marathon (definitely LOTR!!!). I have to thank Aiysha again for working so very hard to make the sleepover so special. She is a true Harry Potter geek and proud of it! Not forgetting the fact that she is ridiculously talented - I hope one day she'll be rewarded for all her party planning magic!

Did you all enjoy this post? Have any of you ever done something like this? Do share your experiences in themed events in the comments section! Til next time, ta!

Peace, love and snitch pops,

Adlina

Ad: Food Experiment - Lasagna Cups!

Hello hello! Hope everyone is having a great day so far. I know I haven't done a food experiment post in a while now, so I'm coming back with (hopefully) a bang! Lasagna cups are basically mini lasagnas that are baked in cupcake/muffin trays so they turn out sort of like cupcakes. I first came across lasagna cups on Stumbleupon (it's an app that generates random pages that you might like based on your interests) and when I saw them I got super excited because they were SO cute and super easy to make! So I 'liked' the page and saved it for later. A couple of months ago, I finally found the time to try them out! I posted the photos on instagram/twitter and some of you seemed to LOVE them, so I hope you'll like this post!

I used the recipe from this website for my lasagna cups. Ok I didn't use the exact recipe because a) I didn't have minced meat  b) Cheese is very expensive here  c) I had a good feeling it would still turn out fine

Ok so below is the original recipe from the website I linked above with my own tweaks in brackets. This recipe is for a serving of 12 lasagna cups:

1/3 pound ground beef (I substituted it with sausages, chopped into very small pieces)

Salt and pepper

24 wonton wrappers

1 3/4 cups grated parmesan cheese

1 3/4 cup shredded mozzarella cheese

3/4 cup ricotta cheese (for all the cheeses, I bought pizza topping instead which had cheddar, mozzarella & another type of cheese that I can't seem to remember)

1 cup pasta sauce (I may have used more that 1 cup. I used Leggo's Bolognese sauce)

I didn't follow the steps given on the website to a tee either. Just used it as a guide but basically did it my way. Ok so first, take a pot, add some oil (any type you like, I used corn oil) and put it on the stove, on medium heat. Add the meat to the pot, add a pinch of salt and pepper and stir occasionally. When  it's cooked three-quarters through, add the pasta sauce to the pot. It's done when bubbles form on the surface of the sauce. Taste the sauce to see if it has enough salt and pepper and is to your liking. Turn off the stove.

Once that is done, the fun part begins: you can start assembling your lasagna cups! Oh and before I forget, please only use wonton wrappers. You are not advised to use spring roll sheets because they are very thin (I learned that the hard way). Also, the taste and texture won't be the same. I've heard that you can also use gyoza wrappers because they are similar to wonton wrappers but thicker; however, I've never tried using them before.

Before you start assembling your lasagna cups, please remember to preheat your oven for about 10-15 minutes at 190 degrees C. 

Take one sheet of wonton wrapper and put it into the holes in the muffin tray. By the way, if your muffin tray is non-stick, DO NOT grease the bottom of the tray before you layer it with the wonton wrappers. Make sure you push down the sheets so that they touch the bottom and sides of the muffin tray. 

Next, top the wonton wrappers with a little cheese.

Then, scoop a little of the meat and pasta sauce onto each tin. One layer will look like the first three tins in the photo above.

After that, do another layer (wonton wrapper, cheese, meat sauce). Then top with cheese! That's it! Can you believe it? Isn't is SUPER EASY? Honestly I have no culinary skills whatsoever, so if I can pull it off, so can you!

This is what they'll look like before they go into the oven!

Put the lasagna cups in the oven and bake for about 18-20 minutes! Here are a couple of photos of the lasagna cups baking in the oven!

Aren't they beautiful?

Look at the yummy melted cheese!

Once they're done, take them out of the oven and let them cool for a few minutes. If you remove them immediately, they'll lose the 'cupcake' shape. After a few minutes, take a knife and loosen the lasagna cups from the edges of the tray. They should come out easily!

Want to see the finished product? Well wait no more! Tada!

Aren't they just so cute?? Perfect for parties, and fun to make with friends/family/children. It's safe to say that this food experiment was a SUCCESS! Woohooo! I'm super happy :D I hope you readers will try these for yourself and share your results with me in the comments :)

Oh and  remember I said that I learnt the hard way of not using spring roll sheets for this recipe? Well I'll show you the results of that experiment.

The lasagna cups simply wouldn't take form! They ended up looking squished and not so yummy :( Most of them turned out crooked or flat. None retained their shape. They still tasted good, but it just wasn't the same. You couldn't even left the cups without it falling apart. Very sad. So remember, DO NOT USE SPRING ROLL SHEETS! 

I was a little sad, because my sister wanted to bring them for her college friends. Fortunately, they still loved it! They even asked for more! Haha :D And hey, at least I tried it out so you won't make the same mistake that I did :) 

On that note, have fun experimenting and don't forget to share your experiences in the comments section! See you!

Love,

Ad

Ad: Food Review - Legend's Claypot Briyani House @ Brickfields

Hi all! Sorry I've been quiet. I don't really have a good reason or excuse so I'm not even going to try lol! Thankfully Far has been keeping you readers busy with her super fun posts! Do try them out because they seriously work!

Anyway, today's post is about the claypot briyani at Legend's Claypot Briyani House (Brickfields branch). There are 3 branches; one in Brickfields, one in PJ and one in Serdang. Apparently they also have delivery services, but not at all branches and limited to certain areas (just found this out like seconds ago! woohoo!). Ok this review is going to be a short one because Tanvir and I only tried one thing on the menu, which is the notorious claypot briyani!  Hey, if it's on the name of the restaurant, it had to be good, right? Read on to find out!

We actually found out about this restaurant through Groupon. They offered a good deal, so we bought it. Twice. Before I dive into the good stuff, let's talk about the location. I don't usually go to Brickfields. I don't know the area well, and the only times that I ever needed to go there were to head to KL Central and to the post office (apparently if I'm not at home to receive my PosLaju parcel, I've to go to this particular branch to claim my parcel). That said, the restaurant was astoundingly easy to find! And you know what's the best part? I didn't have any problems looking for parking (this restaurant gets major brownie points for this!). The restaurant is a standalone building near both the Vivekananda primary and secondary schools. Therefore, it has its own parking space, albeit quite limited. Still, we hadn't had breakfast when we were going to try this place out for the first time and we were thrilled that we could just park right in front of the restaurant.

The exterior of the building looked very simple. It had a big signboard with the restaurant name on it, and the entire front part of the restaurant exterior comprised of  see-through, thick glass. The interior resembled any type of mamak, but much cleaner. It was simple but welcoming. We sat ourselves at a cozy spot at the edge of the restaurant. A waiter immediately came up to us, gave us the menu and we ordered. They had several types of briyani. We decided on the chicken and mutton, as usual. Before long, our food was served, yay!

Claypot Chicken Briyani

Tanvir eager to have his meal!

Tanvir had the chicken and I went with the mutton, but us being us, we shared so it really didn't matter who ordered what. The claypot briyani was served on a tray layered with banana leaf. It was accompanied by a poppadom, some curry and this yogurt veggie called 'raita' if I'm not mistaken. We literally spent some moments staring at the dish in awe, admiring its beauty, taking it all in. But yeah that didn't last long because we were starving and couldn't wait to dig in! The reason it was served on a banana leaf is so that we scoop out some of the rice, put them on the banana leaf and eat from there. The banana leaf enhances all the flavours.

Claypot Mutton Briyani

The rice itself was so flavourful. It was cooked together with the meat so the flavours of the meat were soaked into the rice. It was bliss.Even though the rice and meat were so hot, we couldn't really slow down because it was just that good! Thank God we didn't burn our tongues lol! The mutton itself was soft, juicy and succulent. It was very well marinated and bursting with the flavours of the different spices. The dish itself was quite spicy, so a lot of water was needed to cool down. The curry that accompanied the dish was mutton curry, and it was nice and thick, and tasted perfect! The crispy poppadom added a delightful crunch when eaten together with the rice and meat; a wonderful blend of textures. The raita just went perfectly with the dish. Since it was a little spicy, the raita soothed the tongue and gave the dish a nice tangy twist. I absolutely loved everything about the dish! The chicken too was amazing. It was cooked perfectly; definitely not hard and chewy. It was simply juicy and delicious. The chicken curry was lighter than the mutton curry, but it was just as flavourful. Just thinking about the food is making me salivate. I HAVE to go back there again soon!

The portion was huge. If we weren't hungry, we may have had to struggle to finish our dishes. On that day we wiped everything clean, of course. The groupon came with drinks. I think I had the sirap limau ais and Tanvir probably went for the limau ais. They tasted just the same like at any other mamak - which means that they were too sweet for my preference, but I think Tanvir was ok with his. We were so excited that we bought two of these groupons! Totally worth it! I mean we were definitely coming back after our amazing experience, with or without those groupons.

The different types of Claypot Briyani

They have a lot of other stuff on the menu, too. The usual roti canai (paratha), naan, thosai and chapati were available. They also had the fried rice and noodles, and normal briyani (non-claypot ones) and much, much more. It was a little pricey compared to other mamaks, but considering the whole place was covered in marble tiles and was air-conditioned (and not to mention spiffy clean), I think it's their prices are reasonable. The portions are huge too so I really can't complain. I'm so happy that we gave this restaurant a shot. I feel like we've discovered a hidden gem! Since our first visit, we've been back a few more times and they've never disappointed us. If you want to let your taste buds experience a whole new level of awesome, you must give Legend's Claypot Briyani House a try.

If you're drooling, I'm sorry. But if it makes you feel any better, so am I. Haha! For more info about the restaurant, click here!Till next time, take care and don't forget to comment!

Love,

Ad

Verdict: 5/5

Simple, easy gifts for your girls! Ice Lemon Tea Sugar Scrub- a step by step tutorial

Hi everyone!

Yet another simple DIY from Far! Our more accomplished craft writer, Haneesa is currently swamped with work but she's rustling up some goodies for us soon ;) SO hopefully my more simpler crafts will do for now.

I made these for some girl friends a long time ago, and it is takes literally mere minutes to put together! and again you can customize however you please and hence can be as cheap or as expensive as you want!

This is a recipe for "ICE LEMON TEA SUGAR SCRUBS".
- The icy factor comes from the cooling peppermint essential oil and dried mint leaves.

Ingredients

Sugar (about 1 1/2 cups for a jar)
Oil (I used sunflower, but any of your favourite will do)
Grapefruit Essential oil
Peppermint Essential oil
Peppermint tea leaves (Optional)
A pretty jar

add dried mint leaves at the bottom of jar

add oil

add essential oils now! about 5 drops Grapefruit 1 drop peppermint. Always use high quality, organic!

top up with sugar

add more leaves and mix!

and voila! its done!

Hope you like this simple tutorial! more to come!

love,

Far

Easy, Fun and Cute! DIY card and mini gifts! by Far

Hello!

I am so sorry that it's been a while since the last time I posted a hijab or fashion post! SOOWEE! Will show you guys my baby bump soon! But till then, I found this really fun way to put together an easy and cute gift to show someone you care!

See! Pretty!

I made one for Ad's birthday and the other simpler one is for Hubby for fun :)

Here's how it looks like on the inside of Hubby's gift/card 

I put a love note in the first envelope, a selection of baby names in the second, and a "Date Coupon" in the third :)

This one is Ad's! Because it was Ad's birthday I made it specialer and prettier! I put a special birthday note in the first envelope, a packet of hand cream, two sweets, and a Girly Date Coupon! I added special notes for fun :)

What you need:

Envelopes (must be similar shape)

notes

small knick knacks (sweets, friendship bracelets, rubber bands, gift cards, coupons, rings, dried flowers etc)

stickers or ribbons to decorate cover

Method:

Glue envelope's top seal on to the bottom of the other envelope and continue until you have your desired length. You should be able to neatly fold them into one fat stacked envelope, and it will looks something like a Jacob's Ladder.

Fill your envelopes with whatever you like!

Decorate your envelopes!

I decorated Ad's card/gift with a handmade watercolour Birthday card. I previously made a bunch of these handmade cards ranging from Just For You, Happy Birthday and Congratulations. Its really handy to have them around:) I added an old and cheap charm bracelet for an added oomph.

For Farhan, I added a simple plastic silver stretchy bracelet and a pretty sticker:)

I also gave Ad a special foot soak for sensitive skin. This one has added skin softening properties and relaxation because I added oats and dried lavender buds to the recipe I had in the previous post here. I just took out the lemongrass and peppermint essential oils and added lavender instead.

I hope you guys have been enjoying my craft posts!

enjoy trying them out!

far

DIY Detoxing Toe Tingling Foot Soak!

Hi guys! here is another post I have been meaning to post for a long time!

This makes a really good present for any lady in your life! We girls spend to much time on our feet and really should give our gorgeous feet some much deserved rest and rejuvenation. This can also be pretty cheap and super easy if you already have the ingredients at hand. I made this for my sister and her best friend:)

Ingredients

two cups baking soda
two cups epsom salt
two tablespoons of dried peppermint leaves
5 drops of peppermint essential oil
5 drops of lemongrass essential oil

method

just mix and jar! decorate as you please :)

Benefits of this toe tingling foot soak

Baking soda is said to not only neutralize sweating feet odor but also as a way to alkalize the body. It is best to soak yourself in a big tub with baking soda, but in a jiffy, just your feet can do wonders.

Epsom salt is used as to detoxify the body as well as add much needed magnesium into your system. Magnesium is much better absorbed through the skin then by swallowing a pill. Magnesium is crucial for body and joint pains, and a good night's rest.

peppermint soothes n rejuvenates tired feet.

lemongrass acts as a detoxifier as it helps get rid of "wind".


Hope you enjoyed my post!

love,
far

Breadties Restaurant Review by Far

Bread Ties Review!

Many many moons ago, (and I mean many) Haneesa whisked me away to one of her favorite uni haunts. Breadties is so hidden that I couldn't have found it on my own. Tucked in between old- but not dodgy- alleys is a cool yet quaint restaurant/cafe. It is such a well hidden gem that it reminds me of my Melbourne days where you would find a little funky cafe just out of no where.


I didn't manage (didnt think about it more like!) to take pictures of what it looks like outside but here are some pics of the interior :)

They had a lot of yummy but casual western meals like carbonara pasta, fish and chips, chicken chop etc, and an impressive array of cakes and sweet pastries. Most notable is their macaron cupcake (whoatt?????), but we didn' have any because they were sold out by the time we got there. So this is what we ended up munching on!

and

and a closer look at my oreo sandwich 

Haneesa had the piri piri chicken, and i had the oreo sandwich and iced latte. My sandwhich though super interesting was really nothing much taste wise, but my latte was surprisingly very good! However Haneesa's piri piri chicken was to die for! I really liked it! I cant remember if haneesa enjoyed it as much as I did though, but I remember it being pretty darn tasty! hmmm should convince hubby to take me there again so that i can have my very own plate of piri-piri chicken.

This is a short review from me, and my first very own restaurant review! Sorry its not good as Adlina's awesome reviews though!

love,

farhana

Restaurant info

Location: Taman Melawati, 53100 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
Hours: Monday - Sunday: 8.30am - 7.30 pm
Email:   talk2us@bread-ties.com
Phone: +60341054651