We are on the 2nd day of our road trip up to Seattle. We left on Friday morning to fly down to SJ, CA to take this drive back up to Seattle with my family. A very exciting time indeed.

The weather has been rainy on and off but the skies did clear up enough for us to see beautiful lakes, gorgeous hills and colored leaves.

We ate at a good diner in Mt Shasta yesterday and this morning. Pictures will come later. Soon we’ll be out to grab some Japanese food. More on that soon.

Today was the last day of the Columbia City Farmers’ Market so I thought I would catch it before it goes into hybernation. It will be a long wait till May next year.

I just wanted to share this really unique kiwi fruit – baby kiwi. It’s about the size of grape [small] and the whole fruit is edible. I took a pic of it with a penny so you can see the relative size. These were so sweet and less acidic than the larger kiwi fruit.

In my basket also went some winter squash and coffee cake. Yum!

20 random facts about me, thanks to Kisane.

1. I love rice. If I don’t eat rice for a few days, I will start to crave those luscious soft fragrant grains. I could eat plain rice just like that.
2. My dream job used to be a radio dj/presenter. Folks I know always said I have a good voice. It’s not strong but it’s definitely good to listen to.
3. My favorite fruit is any fruit that is tart and sweet at the same time. That means the favorite changes every season.
4. I have a waffle obsession. My favorite waffle would be one that has vanilla ice cream and strawberry sauce on top.
5. I live a double-life – my dreams are sometimes continued from the previous night. It’s like starring in my own movie. Except, the director doesn’t give me a script ahead of time.
6. When I was single, I always fell asleep to the sounds of late night radio shows. In the morning while getting ready for school, I’ll be tuning in too.
7. I love a good glass of something to drink to unwind but I usually never make it past 2 drinks. The pleasure is gone after the 2nd one, I don’t know why.
8. I used to be in Strawberry Shortcake’s fan club.
9. When I was 12, I passed an entrance exam to go to school in London.
10. At 16, the boy that a friend was trying to hook me up with, fell for a good friend. I was heartbroken for about 3 days. No, not for the boy but because my friends pretended to hide it from me.
11. I allowed myself to think that I needed to go for a writing class. The irony was that I had already made it into graduate school.
12. I am still looking for my dream job. I have hope.
13. I enjoy coloring books. Coloring is therapeutic for me.
14. A willow tree stands outside our house.
15. From my office window, I can see a homeless man make his home on the side of the highway.
16. I enjoy eating crab but I like the ritual of removing the crab meat from its shell even more.
17. I’m not very sociable. I would rather have a quiet dinner with close friends than be at a busy everyone-was-there party.
18. I know I’m all about my teas but I really love coffee too.
19. The boy who followed me around in kindergarten wouldn’t even look my way when we were teenagers and I bumped into him on the bus ride home.
20. I have astigmatism.

This flu strain is no joke.

So why does the man in the nearby religious building decide to unload mounts of stale bread in the parking lot to feed pigeons, crows and seagulls? In my opinion, these birds are just rats with wings.

It is not just occurring far away in some other country. It doesn’t take much to spread in our increasingly small world and global exchange.

Educate yourself, do yourself and those around you, a favor.

Here are a few resources:
BBC’s Q&A
CDC’s information page
WHO’s page
Bird flu in Singapore

I would love to get my hand on these beauties. So girly and so techie. Scrummy!

As much as I love planning meals for parties or just dinners at home, I also enjoy coming up with a recipe/dish that pulls together what’s left in the fridge. I don’t know about you but on some days, the meat won’t thaw fast enough, and a particular noodle just isn’t in stock in my pantry.

This is where I do my creating.

We had leftover ham from our split pea soup night, a new bag of frozen peas, some fresh shitake mushrooms and lots of pasta.

So I threw it together – sauteed the onions, diced ham, frozen peas and sliced mushrooms in some sambal chili, added the cooked pasta, tossed them together in the wok till they started to look like they were meant to be together. Seasoned with some ketchup, chili powder, salt and dark soy sauce.

A pound of pasta fed 4 of us last night as well as made enough leftovers for lunch today.

Call them kitchen sink or velcro meals, I’ll just say, “Happy Tummy!”

Anyone who reads this blog and goes to school or work at Hong Kong University?

One of my dad’s favorite confections, is a cinnamon roll. I don’t know what it is he loves about them, but then again, who doesn’t love a good cinnamon roll? With all that sugary cinnamon, moist dough and translucent icing? I’m guilty.

For a while now, I’ve been trying out recipes from Joy of Baking. I don’t bake very often but Stephanie Jaworski’s recipes have never let me down. Last Christmas’ Mexican Wedding Cookies/Russian Tea Cakes were also a hit. Naturally when I saw her cinnamon rolls recipe, I went with it. How else would I satiate my dad’s cinnamon roll desire?

One thing I liked about this recipe was that the method for making the filling. Instead of brushing on butter and sprinkling the brown sugar and cinnamon mixture, Ms Jaworski tells us to cut the butter into the sugar mixture. I think that it helped eliminate any bits of burnt sugar.

I also liked the thin icing instead of the rich cream cheese frosting. Don’t get me wrong, I do like the rich version sometimes but I think that it takes away from the lovely texture of the roll.

A winter green, gai lan or Chinese broccoli, is a really good healthy vegetable for you. Barbara will tell you more about this veggie as she shares her recipe for beef and gai lan stirfry.

My mum cooks her version by just blanching the cut up gai lan and then tossing it with an oyster-garlic sauce, topped with fried shallots*.

The oyster sauce is made by sauteeing some garlic, adding 2 tbsp of oyster sauce and a little warm water/corn starch slurry.

*Fried shallots are an easy and flavorful garnish. Just slice up some shallots thinly and fry it up in a little oil until golden brown. You’ll be using these jewels on everything you eat before long, if you don’t already do so.