lunch with the Kims

First we were served Pa Jeon - Korean pancake and Swedish meatballs as appetisers. The main course was the delicious Mak Guk Su - Korean hot soup with strips of fish cake. We bought a cake to celebrate Tom's rebirth and it turned out that they too bought the very same cake yesterday from the same store! Another case of great minds think alike huh!

i woke up early Sunday morning and spotted the perfect and complete rainbow from end to end! i grabbed my camera and took a few shots from the deck. Then i noticed the sunrise (front of the house) was an unusual yellow/orange glow. i proceeded to wake the kids up to see this rare and beautiful sight.
My sixteen years old said, "Mom do you remember that day when the sky had the same orange glow back in Missouri?" i remembered that day very well - three of them rushed into the house excitedly and one of them called out, "Mom come and see, i think Jesus is coming back!"
That afternoon, three little boys and their Mom sat in the front yard gazed upon the strange sky, and marveled at yet another beautiful sight created by God.

Chinese New Year Reunion Dinner

An old friend joined us for the reunion dinner. Our friendship dated back to our first month in the States! We were thrilled to hear the good news from him and his baptism last spring. God always work in a mysterious ways and this certainly call for celebration! We had hotpot with the tom yam soup. Two other students were with us and unknown to us all and Master Fang himself, he was allergic to seafood...the next morning he told me, "i'm not feeling too good" and i felt terrible but thankfully it was not a serious reaction even though he had a rough night.

sort of a celebration

We had authentic Korean food whenever we had lunch with Kim. I had the usual bulgogi and the many different type of kimchi.
My better half's favorite: ojingeo pokkum, Korean style spicy squid dish.
It's kind of like a celebration too, because after all these years, Kim's better half finally reconciled with his Father above!

"give me a drink"

On our way to church the past Saturday, as usual we have to stop at the "most confusing junction in town". We saw a frail and rugged lady by the roadside, holding up a cardboard with words of needs. We rolled down the window and signaled to her if she wanted a burger. She walked toward the car with an obvious limp, and thanked us profusely. As she walked away, I was greatly embarrassed with the thought that we've given out of extra.
Would I give her my share? Would I skip a meal so that she will not go hungry? The answer most probably is no and I’m ashamed.

go see the movie!

we were doing our small part hoping that, "end of the spear" will be the hit movie this weedend!
This is a simple yet poignant story between father and son, and more so the later with the killer, when both came face to face in the climax of the movie, and ultimately found the answer at the end of the spear.
a powerful movie not to be missed. MPAA Rating: PG-13 - for intense sequences of violence.
so lunch was on the go!
Mrs. Brown and me were keeping an eye on the kids to free the parents ...can you imaging with fifteen kids (six todders and the rest k - 6) We were grateful for Ms Sara stayed to help us out...my little one was a great help too, he's very good with the todders; then we have the Wu sisters being big sister to the little ones around the play ground.
i set out all the snacks before the group (80-90 people) came back for discussion after the movie.
overall it's been a long day - but for once i had two little girls (one on my lap) reading the Richard Scarry's book out loud and enjoyed their giggles...

"What to eat for breakfast?" - A question that's hard for me to answer on the daily basis.
If I can tolerate milk, I can have cornflakes every day! Someday I succumbed to the temptation and suffered, but that's by far the best combination when comes to the 2% milk.
I opted for crackers and cheese today, and yes I do have the option of soy milk too, I just need to get use to it.
A friend was in town so we met at the China Buffet for lunch. We hardly eat out but usually recommend this place if friends like Chinese food. As usual I started with fruits and maki sushi.
After that I’ll piled a few mouthful of stir-fly noodles, button mushrooms, French beans and stir-fly broccoli. Usually my meal ended with a cup of hot & sour soup, two fried wings and a flaky dessert thingy.
My better half did the tandoori for dinner. He brought home someone he had met at school, a stranger to me. Though by nature I’m very shy, over the years most of the strangers that came for a meal or two had become good friends and family too.

okay let see what we've got here:
i had cereal for breakfast because i was trying to finish the milk, which was a very bad idea...
the boys were complaining about the cereals we had were not what they like - we got most of our dried food/stuffs from Food Co-op (from school, which is from Food Bank) ...and so they had an ear full of this lecture about " being thankful, because people and children of the rest of the world are starving.."
my sixteen year old grilled the salmon because Dad was sleep deprived from his two weeks intensive winterim course. Dad was so proud of him when he got out of bed and found out that the salmon was done, and with fries on the side, and that was the night before...
yesterday was Wednesday which means Mr.B had dinner with us. He likes spicy dishes, and the Thai green curry was easy to prepare and the little one like it a lot!!!
as for today's lunch: instant noodle; dinner was chicken noodle soup.

sleepover meals

The boys had a friend sleepover last night, so it's mac & cheese for lunch! Over the years we've learnt what to put on the table when the boys have friends for a night or two. Since most of their friends were American and none really appreciate Chinese food; we usually had pizza or burgers or hotdog & chips, and the all times favorite being mac & cheese!
As for dinner we had fried rice sticks/bee hoon for dinner with stir fry collard greens and luncheon meat on the side.

steaming pot of goodness!

today we had visitors from Atlanta, and since they were fellow country men, (kakinang- our own people), we decided to have steamboat or hot pot for lunch as an early Chinese New Year celebration. There is no better way to enjoy food in the middle of winter than a steaming pot of goodness!

our boys came home with a few friends after their Sunday freesbie - so for a quick dinner, they had hot pot with chicken stock (instead of Tom Yum) with all the left over ingredients....and certainly good to the last drop!

it's breakfast for dinner!

our monthly dinner was at the Lambs tonight and it's breakfast for dinner. Mrs. Lambs prepared bacon, spam and homemade sausage patties and pancakes with request of scrambled or fried eggs.
if you look at the picture on the left, can you guess which plate belong to a 16 years old? Of course this was just his first plate! (the other plate belong to a 41 years old and it's not me!)
Needless to say Mrs. Lamb had very little to clear when everybody had their fill. It was good to get together after the long break, and i was feeling kind of melancholy now that we only have a few more months before we have to bid farewell to these people we have come to love dearly....

Comfort foods

My cough stopped right after a cup of coffee that day, and I wondered how much was psychological. I also had better sleep the last two night with very light wheezing – thank you Mrs. Brown for praying.
This morning I had a cup of honeyed plum tea and was instantly transported back to Japan. I remember the umeboshi, a sour, pickled plum, which is usually enjoyed with cooked rice; just thinking about it made my mouth water! I'm a junkie for preserved/dried fruit: apricot, Chinese olive, dates, mango, prune and the list can go on...dried plums rank on top of the list.
Lunch was banana sandwich, the boys had pizza and my better half ate the left overs: fried cabbage with bacon bits and sambal eggs; he bought fried chicken so I don't have to cook dinner, he's always very thoughtful that way!

one cup or two?

I had a rough night with all the coughing and wheezing. I was raking my brain trying to figure out what could have triggered it. I was out in the cold last night waiting to be picked up and it was less then 10 minutes; It was then the coughing fits started. I can only blame myself for not wearing a jacket! So what did I consume yesterday that could have triggered all these? I had just started on some vitamins, less then half a cup of milk (with cornflakes). Could it be the crushed pineapple in the chicken? Or the dessert, just a few slices of canned peaches.
BUT I had two cups of herbal tea instead of coffee yesterday.
Eleven years ago I was diagnosed to have Adult Onset Asthma.
It did not bother me much with just a couple times a year non-threatening coughs and wheezing and the Ventolin. I knew I had some Ventolin from last year but stopped myself from taking it because it had expired. This morning I did a search on Adult Onset Asthma and came across all the pages with coffee & asthma - apparently "coffee has been shown to be a potent bronchodilator. If caught without your medication, a few cups of coffee could assist in an emergency."
Dang it! Just when I resolved to cut down the coffee, it seems that it's good for me.
It doesn't help to be reminded that Dad died of an asthmatic attack and he had tea instead of his usual hot milky cocoa drink.
Here is my dilemma, should I stick to my resolutions or cross it out all together!?

first attempt!

Received the latest issue of food & family - so I tried out their kiddy recipe: Chicken pot pies for dinner. I do not have small ovenproof cereal bowls so I used two deep dish pie plate instead. It turned out not what I had expected but the little one love it and had 5/8 of the pie!
My older two like it too, not bad for the first attempt.
I had a bowl of cornflakes in the morning, and for lunch I assembled my own chicken salad: left over chicken from last night, romaine lettuce, carrots and raisins. I ran out of mandarin oranges and used crushed pineapple instead and it turned out pretty tasty.

new year's resolutions

( i turn into a manatee whenever winter is here!)
It's winter and its cold and you pile more things on your dinner plate, especially when it comes to Jasmine rice! I tend to eat more in winter and because it's cold, I rather be in then out,
save the hassle of putting on a few layers with jacket, scaft and gloves. (what a lame excuse!)
Now the weather here is so mild that I have nothing to complain about. Having lived in the Mid-West for a few years, I'm thankful as long as there's no snow on the ground!I love the snowy scene though, it's the cold that I can not stand. As for me, the perfect way to enjoy a snowy day is:
you sit at the sunny spot of the living room with a cup of coffee in your hand and looking out from the window, marvel at the beautiful snow flakes that fall ever so silently....

Now back to my New Year's Resolutions:

1. eat less rice.
2. walk a mile a day.
   
3. cut down to just one cup of coffee.
   

cheers to health

A lemon a day ever since I got back from the trip a little under the weather. It certainly help with a short week at school and having an extra day to sleep in. I'm not a good traveler and no longer twenty two so it took a couple more days to get over the jet-lag. Beside drinking tons of water and juice tea (an orange, an apple and one lime wedge; juice fruit, add water and gently heat), my diets consist of rice porridge and chicken noodle soup. We had a gorgeous day (60 decree F), my better half grilled the Tandoori chicken, perfectly done! The collard greens was on sale last week and we had it every other day, stir-fry with shrimps or onion and botton mushroom. As to whipped up my appetite, stir-fry SzeChuan vegetable with pork strips!
I'm thankful that both this week and next are 4 days week.... I have a lot to catch up with beside sleeping in!

dinning in France

how we ended up in Grenoble?
it turn out that the one day trip to Paris was fully booked so we flew into the cheapest city we can find online - the Capital of French Alps. We took the cable car up to the Bastille, the view was breathtaking with the Belledonne, Chartreuse and Vercors mountains as its backdrop, and a beautiful sunset, awesome!
We had porkchop for dinner, baguettes of course and out of all the fine French cheese on the shelves, the kids picked their favorite: the laughing cow!







the next morning we drove to Lyon and got lost in the
city without a map, we went round and round trying to find the tourism office; when we finally located the office, we went round again looking for the entrance to the parking garage! We were all glad to get off the car after that. We took the funicular up to the Fourviere Basilica, Grandma would be please! She was here many years ago. We have our own version of the Eiffel Tower standing not too far from this site.
Lyon - a picturesque city, pride itself as the world capital of gastronomy; we walked pass all the fancy foods in the display window - sorry to say we were cold and hungry, at the end we settled for some snacks (absolutely yummy!) and headed back to Grenoble.

Happy New Year!

Being in London means being with family and old friends -
there's always a trip to China Town and a simple feast, the museums and the walk along the Thames;
and when you get too cold,
have a cuppa in a pretty but narrow coffee house;
and of course you have to eat the fish and chips!