Hawaiian macadamia coconut cookies
I'm still here 
. Haven't post any updates for almost a month! If you recall, I went back to school part-time for my Masters degree, it's a lot of work and most of my weekends have been spent on homework, tests, papers, etc. My professor is nice enough to let us have a Thanksgiving break this week, yay! Work has been crazy too, I hardly find time to read blogs but I try to sneak in 5-10 minutes everyday just to read and comment on blogs.
When I'm not gardening, I'm either cooking or baking. I like to try new recipes and especially love to take pictures of food! Every time I come back from travelling, 40% of my pictures are food related. My favorite is discovering new restaurants and trying new cuisines. By the way, is anybody watching Top Chef this season?
I stumbled upon the Hawaiian macadamia coconut cookies from Technicolor Kitchen. By the way, check out her pictures, it's amazing. My food pictures don't even come close. Here's the recipe and some pictures, the original recipe makes 3 dozen but I've modified it to make about a dozen:
Hawaiian macadamia coconut cookies
Makes about 1 dozen – I got 18
1/2 cup (113g) unsalted butter, at room temperature
2/3 cup (75g) granulated sugar
2/3 cup (66g) firmly packed brown sugar
1/2 egg
1 tbsp grated orange rind
1 1/8 cups (105g) all-purpose flour
1 1/8 cups (72g) rolled oats
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/3 cup (34g) sweetened desiccated coconut
3/8 cup (50g) macadamia nuts, coarsely chopped (you can substitute this with cashew nuts)
Preheat oven to 180ºC/350ºF; line 2 large baking sheets with baking paper.
In a large bowl, cream butter and both sugars. Add egg and beat well. Add orange rind and beat well.
In a separate bowl, combine flour, oats, baking powder and salt. Beat into creamed mixture. Stir in coconut and macadamia nuts.
Make balls with 1 tablespoon full of dough and place them on the sheet, about 5cm (2in) apart. Press down the tops with a lfork to flatten slightly. Bake for 12 to 15 minutes or until edges are golden – mine took 15 minutes.
Cool for 5 minutes before removing from sheet otherwise the cookie breaks apart. Cool on wire racks.
New gardening tool
My sister-in-law bought this pair of gardening scissors for me in Hong Kong. She told me this brand is well-known in China and supposed to be good for gardening. I wonder if this is for bonsai pruning because I don't think it can replace my usual pruning scissors. Can't wait to try it!
Early christmas blooms
I've had this christmas cactus for a couple of years and it always bloom way before christmas. I think as soon as the temperature gets cooler and the days get shorter, somehow it sense it and starts blooming. The name is really deceiving because shouldn't it bloom on Christmas?
Christmas cactus has beautiful blooms and is really easy to take care of, seriously I think I only water it once or twice a month during the summer months. When it starts blooming I water it more frequently and also add bloom fertilizer every two weeks. I don't even know if this is the way to take care of christmas cactus but it seems to have more and more blooms every year, so I guess what I'm doing is working. But one important note is not to move it around too much once it gets used to the temperature and light source of the spot, otherwise the flower buds will drop because of temperature fluctuations.
