Food creation - banana bread

Where did we find the recipe?
Thanks to this recipe found on Google

What's in it?
Mainly banana, walnuts, flour and butter.

After tasting?
The banana and walnuts smell sooo good. The bread is very moist and it super addictive! The only down side: it's quite greasy. I guess that's why it's so moist. I think next time we will try putting less butter in it, despite the fact we already reduced it already. Once again, Mike is having a VERY hard time keeping his hands away from them.

Food creation - no-bake cheesecake

Where did we find the recipe?
Thanks to Martha Stewart

What's in it?
Pretty much fat and sugar.

After tasting?
Definitely a guilty pleasure. I would suggest to let it sit in the fridge overnight rather than just 3 hours before eating. It filling taste really smooth. Perfect with the graham crust. Now that Mike is baking along side with me. He finally realized what actually goes into these scrumptious desserts. He is definitely trying much harder to cut back on desserts.

Food creation - pizza

Where did we find the recipe?
We didn't. It's another one of our own creation.

What's in it?
1lb fresh pizza dough (which i have the hardest time finding in Van), tomato sauce, 1 tomato, 1/3 onion, 5 white mushrooms, 1/2 zucchini, 5 gloves of garlic, 2 sweet basil pork sausages, minced pork and mozzarella cheese.



After tasting?
It's DELISH!!! Super juicy and all the ingredients mingle perfectly together. The crust is thin yet hard enough to hold up all the toppings. We wouldn't change anything else.

Food creation - apple ice-cream crunch

Where did we find the recipe?
We didn't. 100% our own creation.

What's in it?
1 granny apple, handful of crumbled honey/nuts cereal, and 2 scoops of vanilla ice-cream

After tasting?
Refreshing! The touch of sourness from the granny apple takes the heaviness out of the ice-cream. The crunch from the cereal+nuts added a different texture from the apple. It 's a great summer dessert. The only change we may consider is to put in a little less apple, and instead of cereal, we may substitute with chopped nuts, or those nut clusters granola.

Food creation - wonton

As of last week, Mike and I have began to experiment with our knowledge on cooking (or the lack of). In another words, we are experimenting with online recipes and our own stomach. I will be posting random pictures of what we made on here, along with my description of how each really tasted like. As looks can be deceiving sometimes.

Today food creation - WONTON

Where did we find the recipe?
Thanks to Google.
We substituted green onion with chives, and added Chinese mushrooms to it.
Recipe for wonton stuffing
Wonton wrapping styles



After tasting?
It was very blend, or even tasteless. I believe since we added the Chinese mushrooms, forgot to adjust the seasoning with the new proportion. But overall, the texture, looks and the degree of cook-ness is perfect. Just needed a little more taste. But it's nothing some extra seasoning can't fix.

Animal abuse!

Today I heard on the news about a NFL player holding illegal dog fights within his property. After the fights, he would kill the wounded dogs by either electrocuting, shooting or drowning them. Being a dog owner myself, I am FURIOUS!! I cannot believe how anyone can abuse poor innocent animal like this. Not just dogs, but ALL animals. I would only wish our judicial system could punish all animal abusers who found guilty the same way as they have abused the animal.

ARRGGHHHH!!!!

city love..

Somehow i can't seem to get bore of listening to her.

A light bulb idea!

I was in the car the other day and a light bulb idea hit me. I think all facial tissue paper should be shaped round rather than square (or rectangle or however you like to call it). This should lead to less consumption and less waste. Most people mainly use the center of the paper. Not many would make an effort to, or be able to use the 4 corners of the paper. Thus in many usage, the 4 corner areas are actually useless. If companies can cut the corners and make them into circles, then there will be much less waste out there, and they can make more with these excess materials.

I should be on American Inventor!

La Ratatouille

After watching Ratatouille in the theater, i'm yearning for some good home cooking. YEH that my parents will be here tomorrow!

And I want to learn how to make Ratatouille.

3 little monkeys

Yesterday we were at our friend's patio for a great day of BBQ, and there were 3 cutest little monkeys there enjoying their yummy bananas.

Happy Birthday Canada!

Yesterday Mike and I celebrated our first Canada Day together. We purposely got all our in-house chores done the day before, so we can immerse ourselves into the city for some good’ol Canada Day festivities. All in all, we had fun. Lots of people. We thought of getting our face painted, but have no idea what we want to put on us. Actaully mike does, he wants to be SpiderMan. I thought that was a little too out there. Plus it has nothing to do with the Canada Day theme, so we decided to pass with the face painting idea. Maybe next year, when we put more thoughts into what should go on our faces. But at least Mike went home happy with his Captain Vancouver "captain" hat!

natural human talent

Ususally natural human talents are rather useless. Like hyper-extented legs or arms, being able to roll your tongue, etc etc. But THIS ONE is quite useful! It's like those seniors who walk around with their folding seat cane.

everybody love Facebook

Undoubtedly the latest online network craze is the Facebook. Given the number of people that have already registered, you are constantly surprised by whom you'll find in the crowd. Some even date back to elementary school days. Despite finding all these long lost in contact faces, this is not what shocked me the most about the power the Facebook. The real crazy thing is my parents are also on it. Talk about parental control!

rollin', rollin' rollin'...

As we have to retire our bikes' old storage location, mike and i decided to transport them to the new storage spot ourselves. Thus, we set off on another biking expedition. This time, we rode from Gastown to Metrotown. It seemed like quite a distance at first thought, but the actual trek wasn't that bad at all. Despite having to navigate through the fragmented city's bike routes, and a few rather sloppy uphills which our "cruiser" bikes can't really handle. Overall, the ride was quite enjoyable. But if we are going to do this again, we will definitely need bikes that are actually equip with changeable gears.

One thing I must say, Vancouver is a much more bike friendly city than Toronto.

fire! fire!

Today while mike and I were preparing lunch, he heard a loud bang from outside. We went out to the balcony and noticed a house near by was on fire. Despite the amount of smoke came about from the fire, it only lasted about 20 minutes. Here are some shots we took of the scene.

Family traits

Growing up as kids, none of us hope to grow up to be like our parents. After all, they are old, boring, bossy and not all that cool. Plus, we all want to be different, to be ourselves, and have our own individuality. Now that I’m married, a little older, and experienced a little bit more. I realized us kids can never dropped to far from the family tree. Somewhere along the way, we all managed to carry pieces of our parents with us.

My family as an example. My brother inherited my dad's stubbornness, his strength, his boldness, his way of dealing with issues, his righteous-ness, a hard worker that he is, and his love for zzzzz. On the other hand, my bro also took after my mom's ambition, her business mindedness, her reckless-ness, and her fainthearted-ness.

Whereas myself, I got my dad's quick wittedness, his toughness, his confident, his stubbornness, his happy-go-lucky manner, and his laziness. I also got my mom's nagging ability, her clumsiness, her anti-social tendency, her way of dealing with people, and her inability to describe "things" in words.

And I LOVE IT!

Massive bike meet

Upon stepping out of the bikram studio after our class last night, mike and i couldn't help but stopped to watch this ocean of bikes passing in front of us. There must be at least 200 to 300 bikes on the road. They took up the entire lane while many on-lookers and drivers were cheering them on. This is the largest bike meet we have ever encountered. I got a chance to asked them about the next meet when part of them were haulted by the red light. It is called Critical Mass. They exist internationally, which means many cities around the world also have their local CM meets.

CM Vancouver happens on the last Friday of every month to ride the streets of Van city. This means mike and i have only one month to beautify our bikes for the next meet. Can't wait!!

If interested, you can visit http://critical-mass.info to learn more about their cause and find out when's the next meet in your city.

A day at the park

Today mike and i took our bikes out for a spin around Standley Park. Even though the weather wasn't the greatest, but just being able to be out riding was a lot of fun. I know I often has much to complain about the city. But I must say one thing, nothing beats being outdoor in Vancouver during summer.

Unconditional love

Thanks for being a friend
Thanks for being the worrier
Thanks for being the disciplinarian
Thanks for being a life teacher
Thanks for being a constant support
Thanks for being a role model
Thanks for being our mom

i'm speechless

Give me an S - T - U - P - I - D! yay!



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