Cookbook for a lazy student (er..I mean a cook'page')

(Strawberry cheese cake, f/1.4, 400)

Well, I'm probably not in a position to divulge or share any new attractive recipes since I hardly eat warm food for my dinner. If you consider microwaved home cook pasta and toasted bread with scramble eggs as hot food for meals, then I'd say I've that every a couple of days when I'm low on fruit, fresh vege for salad.

But here are several of my recipes that may make cooking an enjoyable 15 mins experience for those of you who are too lazy to prepare your dinner after a long, tiring day at school.

1) 'Fast' Pizza: You'll require a couple of things bought from a supermarket: Tomato paste for pizza base (if you can't be bothered with it, or you want something that can be used for other cooking as well, get a tomato ketchup or a barbeque sauce), Tuna or Salmon in the can, pickles from the jars (my favorite would be the sweet gherkins and capers), grated cheese (for rich flavor it'll be Parmesan, but Cheddar is not a bad choice as well), and stuff**.

Basically just like you'd prepare your toasted bread for breakfast, you'd do the same with your pieces of bread for this recipe. Toast the bread til it suits your liking with toaster, dabbed some tomato paste on it, pour hearty amount of tossed tuna/salmon, pickles and your favorite cheese over the paste and let it sit in the power microwave oven for 45 secs first. After this first step is done, with a fork stab the fillings and then put it in the microwave for another 45 secs. Your pizza is ready! Caution, the pizza topping is pretty hot especially the cheese bit!

2) 'Humus' dipped Baguette: You'll need chick peas from a can and unsweetened yogurt from your nearby supermarket. If you're the type who can't eat your food without vegetables in it, grab a bag of baby carrots on your way out. And of course, Baguette!

The 'humus' is simple, but may require some muscular intervention to squash the tossed chickpeas to almost paste-like (don't worry too much over the uncrushed ones, that's what your teeth are for!). Start adding yogurt with a spoon or two as humus generally is attractive when the water/liquid content is just nice. Some chickpeas are already salted, so depending on your taste bud, season it with grind salt and pepper. I like being colorful sometime, so I'll add some beetroot (from the can of course!) that gives a pink-to-violet look! Your French meal is ready now to be served, and your baby carrot dipped in this humus is a terrific salad accompaniment!

3) Salmon 'snack': This is a little bit more 'expensive' dinner, but it's worth every once in a month try! You'll need freshly packed salmon (smoked is sometime on sale, so grab that over the raw one!) and wheatmeal crackers from your supermarket.

This is as easy as ABC (I guess the price the salmon costs made it this way!). Basically it's just the matter of cutting the salmon pieces and putting it on your wheatmeal biscuits. If you happened to have some 'humus' from the previous recipe left, that'll just add extra flavor to your healthy dinner. Or maybe some spiced fruit chutney spread on your biscuits! Salmon (smoked or raw) goes extremely well with capers, believe me! If you're worried about salad, the cherry tomatoes should solve your problem.

4) 'Fruity' salad for vegetarian: Your favorite fruits (I never tried with banana yet) to go with a spoon or two of mayonnaise, cream cheese, raisins, nuts (unsalted over salted, hazelnut/cashew nut/almond over peanut) and lettuce, spinach (basically just grab a bag of green salad from the counter), all obtainable from your supermarket.

This requires a bit of cleaning up the mess, so I tend to prepare this only when I'm not physically challenged. Granny Smith apples make a good one, but mandarin, oranges and pears are as good for the 'fruity' bits. You'll have to peel them and dice them before you throw mayo on the salad bowl, or otherwise it'll be a bit chewy salad. Since I love nuts (and they drive me nut!), I'll be pouring a handful of nuts into the bowl. If time is not of your concern for now, chopping the nuts will help with the chewing job later on. I usually soaked raisins in hot water for a couple of minutes so that they bloated and entice your taste buds with an even more powerful sweetness. And finally craft your salad with greens and cream cheese! Some prefer goat cheese (feta) to cream cheese, but feta is a bit salty and I don't find salty and sweet taste rather that flamboyant.

stuff**: Other things that you'd probably would only need to have if you're a true fan of a perfect pizza. Olives, onion, mushrooms are among them that I know of. But I find onion is a bit rough to cook in a minute or so in the microwave. And no one would like the tanginess taste of raw onion I'm sure.

P/S: If drinks are a culture to you, remember this: Color co-ordinate with your meal. For recipe 1 and 3, red would do the job while white would complements recipe 2 and 4.

Comments: Supplying my picture of baking strawberry cheese cake to conjure the image I'm not a lousy cooker despite my lack of practice in the real kitchen (other than a microwave oven!).

Gone Surfing!

(The Lion Rock and its reflection on the wet sand at Piha, f/8.0, 1/225)

I'm posting some shots taken from my recent trip with the other avid photographers from our university Photography Club. I'm told that this club is one of the first clubs established in the university and it's suffice to say that it's been there since before I was born!

So the theme of the outing was something like water and waterfalls.. Oh! Behold.. We've got more than what we asked for (at least for me!). I truly enjoyed this trip since it's something I'm dear to: Hiking to waterfalls and hills and forests!

(Kite Kite Fall at Piha, f/16, 1/4)

These waterfalls are located to the west of Auckland, Waitakere, about 45 mins drive from the city center. They're truly amazing features of west Auckland, where the closest National Park to the city resides. Apart from this, this part of the city/region also offers one of the best trekking experience in the country, and I speak this from my experience of walking through part of the trails.

After exhausting most of the photographers in the group (I must admit that these guys are really soft bones!), we decided to spent our sunset in Piha, the surfers paradise! If you're an avid surfer, go brave the water in Piha or Raglan when you step to the country!

Most of the photographers had cool gadgets with them. Manfrotto tripods, several magic filters (blue, yellow, gradual, purple, sunset and even black ones!) that trick the cameras to produce superhuman shots. There's even a guy that owned a Canon 1D for Pete's sake!! I've to be contented with my UV filter and solely depends on the nature's friendly light to get the effect that I wish. Oh well, poor student! But nowhere it seems that my robust Pentax K10D failed me! Anyhow, I wouldn't want to end my post without a quick surf on the day's sumptuous outing treat! So, here we go...

(Looking down at Kite Kite Fall along the walkway, f/8, 1/400)

(NZ is famous for its ferns, f/8.0, 1/400)

(A stream along the Kite Kite Fall walkway, f/22, 0.3")

(Majestic view of the Sun crossing the horizon across Tasman Sea, f/22, 0.3")

Somewhere, out there...

(The beautifully lit Sydney Opera House--f3.5, 3.5secs)

Somewhere there's someone who dreams of your smile, and finds in your presence life that is worthwhile. So when you are lonely, remember it's true, somebody, somewhere, is thinking of you.

(The proud Sydney's Harbour Bridge--f1.4, 1/4000s)

Now that soothed my soul a bit after a phase of life where challenges never cease to cool down even for a bit. Well, that's a student life where you're constantly bogged down, or rather spent an eon figuring out how the heck my experimental data doesn't agree at all with the well-established theories. Ever felt being let down by inanimate objects? Go figure my plots of measured data!

(Martin's Place at Sydney City Center--f5.6, 1/30s)

It's not all bitter and sour, this life of a research student I'd say. On the plusses side, I'd say I've lead a comfortable if not luxurious life with the research stipend. Oh, never forget about the free tickets for conferences and seminars around the country and the world! Of course, you're supposed to be there introducing and presenting your skills in your area to your fellow researchers, but it's never a crime to bite the juiciest part of the travel intent; travelling itself!

(With the first guy who invented THz Pulsed Time Domain at IBM, Dan Grichskowsky [center]. Here we're taken around a cruise ship sailing around the Sydney's harbour before the dinner function.)

Anyhow, since I've been talking about sponsored travel, it's about time to display my ostentatious my pictures of Sydney visit for another conference that's heavily attended by the 'gods' of the microstructured fibers field.

(Stoked with the award!)

Comment: The visit to OZ wasn't very eventful at the first arrival. Holed up at the waiting area with an Immigration officer interviewing your purpose of visit isn't really something I've had expected. Lost my way to the conference hall the first day (and missing the best bits of keynote talks!) adds several exasperating unnecessary stress! But the most shocking but pleasing surprise that I've got was the Best Student Award (for presentation) at the conference, despite my stammers and some bad English pronunciations at the beginning of the talk.