Coaching is a journey, Not a destination... I've just begun my journey to become a professional coach!

Reflect on the initial 4-day classroom training in early April, it was a very demanding 4 days over my mental and physical state.

For the new knowledge and skills I learnt, my very logical thinking mode is being challenged. There are many things need to be un-learnt and re-learnt. Need to consciously aware of my thinking process at the back of the my mind if I want to be a good coach to help my client by active listening and making powerful enquiry.

For my own sense of being and confidence level, I also felt challenged during that 4 days training. Most of my fellow cohort they are average at least 5 to 10 years more experienced than me in their corporate life or they are entrepreneur who own their own companies. I feel I am a bit too junior compare to their experience and worried I could not bring as much as insights they could contribute in the training.

Apart from the sense of seniority, I also felt physically challenged on my presence in the class, as I am quite small in size, I didn't wear heels, I looked very small physically compare to most of my fellow cohort who are at least one head taller than me.

I felt uneasy during the second and third day of training, but on the last day, my confidence level and self-esteem restored. It was a valuable experience to go through such internal struggles to make myself a stronger person for tomorrow.

Good summary of the importance of Alignment

"Your life has an inner purpose and an outer purpose. Inner purpose concerns BEING and is primary. Outer purpose concerns doing and it is secondary. Your inner purpose is to AWAKEN. Your inner purpose is an essential part of the purpose of the whole, the universe and its emerging intelligence.Your outer purpose can change over time. It varies greatly from person to person. Finding and living in alignment with the inner purpose is the foundation for fulfilling your outer purpose. It is the basis for true success. Without the alignment, you can still achieve certain things through effort, struggle, determination, and sheer hard work or cunning. But there is no joy in such endeavor, and it invariably ends in some form of suffering." - Eckhart Tolle

The power of alignment

"Someone who takes the time to understand their relationship with source, who actively seeks alignment with their broader perspective, who deliberately seeks and finds alignment with who-they-really-are, is more charismatic, more attractive, more effective, and more powerful than a group of millions who have not achieved this alignment." - Abraham Hicks

Professional Coach Training - The most difficult training I have so far...

Today is the third day of the training. The awareness and feeling that I learnt something but unable to apply is very confusing and tiring. But I need to recollect my thoughts, allowing all the concepts and new knowledge to sink in and make sense, then start to practice in real sessions.  Looking forward to start my practical sessions soon!

Sun-dried Tomato Bread

Tired of usual bread buy from supermarket, so make something special for breakfast!

Serving size: 8 pieces (each round bread is about 3 cm height x 9 cm diameter)

Preparation time: 45 minutes (exclude 2 rounds of waiting time)
Cooking time: 12 minutes

Ingredients:      
225g       strong white bread flour
1/2 tsp   salt
10g         or 1 sachet easy blend dried yeast)
100g       butter (melted and cool slightly)
3 tbsp     milk (warmed)
2 eggs     beaten
50g         sun-dried tomatoes (well drained and chopped finely)
milk        for brushing


Steps:

1. Lightly grease your baking tray / cookie sheet.
2. Sieve the bread flour and salt into a large mixing bowl. Stir in the yeast, then pour in the butter, milk and eggs.  Mix together to form a dough.
3. Turn the dough on to a lightly floured working surface and knead for about 5 minutes. Alternatively, use an electric mixer with a dough hook.
4. Place the dough in a greased bowl, cover and leave it to rise in a warm place for 1.5 hours until the dough doubled in size. Knock back or punch down the dough by kneading it for a few minutes.
5. Knead the sun-dried tomatoes into the dough, sprinkle the work surface with extra flour as the tomatoes are quite oily.
6. Divide the dough into 8 balls and place them on the baking tray /cookie sheet. Cover and leave them to rise for about 30 minutes until the bread doubled in size.
7. Brush the bread surface with milk.
8. Pre-heat the oven, bake with 230C/450F for 10-15 minutes, until you see the bread turned into golden brown.
9. Transfer the bread to a wire rack and leave to cool slightly before serving.

My Tips:

• If the sun-dried tomatoes are not preserved in olive oil with dried rosemary/ thyme/ basil/ oregano, I suggest you add in a bit of these dried herbs into the dough at the same time when you knead the sun-dried tomatoes in.  This can enhance the flavor.
• I researched about the ways to make my own sun-dried tomatoes. But after considering all the different methods, I decided to get them from supermarket, as I don't use them that often.  Here is one of the helpful websites I recommend: click here for details

My comments: I think the saltiness and flavor are just right, the texture of the bread is also better than I expect as this is the first time I am baking bread myself.  Not as difficult as I imagine. The only thing is need to plan ahead when to start your cooking, as you need to factor in the two slots of waiting time.

Rosemary Crescents (迷迭香酥)

Making something for breakfast on Sat morning!

Serving size: 18 pieces (puff pastry of 24cm x 24cm)

Preparation time: 15 minutes
Cooking time: 12 minutes

Ingredients:      
1 puff pastry (24cm x 24cm or 250g roll into 2mm thickness)
100g softened butter
1 crushed garlic clove
1 tsp lemon juice
1 tsp dried rosemary (or try other herbs like thyme)
salt & pepper


Steps:

1. On a lightly floured surface, roll out the puff pastry, or just do it directly on your baking tray / cookie sheet.
2. Cut the pastry into long triangular shape. Mine is about 6cm base x 9cm height per piece.
3. In a bowl, mix the softened butter, garlic clove, lemon juice and dried rosemary together until soft. Season with salt and pepper to adjust the taste.
4. Spread the mixture on the surface of each of the pastry. Gently roll each piece of pastry from the triangle base towards the far end of the tip.
5. Arrange the crescents on the baking tray / cookie sheet and leave at least 5cm in between to allow them to increase in size. Chill for 30 minutes.
6. Dampen the baking tray / cookie sheet with cold water to create steamy atmosphere during baking. This can help the crescents to rise.
7. Pre-heat the oven, bake with 200C/400F for 10-15 minutes, until you see the crescents turned into golden and risen.

My Tips:

• Can brush a bit thicker layer of the mixture on the pastry to give more flavor.
• Need to pinch the crescents slightly so the crescents will not unroll during baking.

My comments: I could have add stronger flavor or brush thicker layer of the mixture on the pastry before rolling into crescents. Also I did not pinch the crescents tight, so some of them unrolled a bit when baking.

Palmiers (蝴蝶酥) [modified version]

First time making palmiers, is easy and fun! Second time making the taste is even better!

Serving size: 18 pieces (puff pastry of 24cm x 24cm)

Preparation time: 15 minutes
Cooking time: 20 minutes

Ingredients:      
1 puff pastry (24cm x 24cm)
1/4 cup   Caster sugar (or vanilla sugar)
3 tsp       Melted butter (unsalted)
generous cinnamon powder if want to add variety to original flavor


Steps:

1. Sift or sprinkle half of the caster sugar on your working table surface. 
2. Place the puff pastry on top of the sugar and brush the melted butter on the pastry lightly.
3. Sprinkle the remaining half of the sugar over the pastry.
4. Sprinkle the cinnamon powder if you want to create different flavor.
5. Imagine you need to divide the pastry into 6 equal parts, then start from the left side fold 1/6 towards the center, then fold another 1/6 towards the center, now you should have 3 layers of pastry on the left. Do the same for the right side of the pastry.
6. Then fold the left and right side together and you should have 6 layers of pastry now. Press on the pastry gently, so both sides will stick together.
7. Let the pastry chill in fridge for at least half an hour or in freezer for about 20 minutes.
8. Take out the pastry and cut into strips of 1.25cm each in thickness.
9. Brush the melted butter on both sides of the pastry lightly.
10. Pinch and press both sides of the strip to ensure they stick together, to avoid both sides unroll during baking.
11. Place the strips on baking paper. Leave at least 5cm between each strip, as they will expand during baking.
12. Spread the top part of both sides like a "T"-shape.
13. Preheat oven to 200C/395F or 180C/356F if use fan-forced mode.
14. Place the tray in the middle of the oven. Total bake for 20 minutes, monitor first 10 minutes and bake until sugar has caramelized and pastry turns golden brown. Then turn the pastry to the other side and continue to bake until this side also turns golden brown.
15. Allow palmiers to cool on rack for at least 10 minutes before serving.

My Tips:

• Avoid brushing too much butter, otherwise the palmiers may become too salty. Use unsalted butter can avoid this problem.
• can also sprinkle a bit of sugar on the surface when palmiers just taken out from over to increase the sweetness.

My comments: Singapore weather is too hot, so palmiers may feel a bit sticky when holding in hand.