Finally, I perfected my skills!

Credit to: http://jussaemon.blogspot.com/2007/10/how-to-weave-ketupat.html

Overdue post For Labour Day, we went down south to Morro Bay, a quiet coastal small town. We took the scenic Highway 1 that runs along the Pacific coastline, added a total of 1.5 hours to the driving time, but it was all worth it.

At Morro Bay, we got hooked eating this fish dish combo – Mahi Mahi combo… The fish is so perfect! Simple preparation, not a fancy restaurant but it’s soooooo tasty, we ate that 3 times for the next 2 days!

Mahi Mahi combo - garlic bread, perfect chips, salmon

Hearst Castle, click on this pic to check out the beautiful castle

On Saturday, the MPBA group had a very sentimental farewell potluck party for Wing Yew, who is a dedicated volunteer for many years. Food was great as always, I cooked kam heong prawns, learned from Chef Peter Pang on Youtube!

Wing Yew adorned by many roses

Then on Sunday, I got to try some of Martin Yan’s China cookbook recipe… made a feast! Steam fish with black bean sauce, steam tofu, chicken soup, stir fry kangkung and kam heong prawns (from potluck the day before!) We had a dear friend over, Joshua, President of MPBA. Champagne courtesy of Josh.  The weekend went by quick as lightning

Joshua and me

Frank and me

Sometimes I forget that I’m in America. In Silicon Valley, there are a lot of Asians (woohoo!) so I hardly experience any real ‘American culture’ . So when I entered the AT&T park stadium and saw the crowd, the game, the excitement, the sound and noise, eat garlic fries.. I exclaimed “I’m in AMERICA!”

AT&T Park, home of the San Francisco Giants

40,000+ crowd!

My momma will be so proud of me, I made taro (family of yam) rice! The taste is not as good as I expected (need to check with mom what’s missing, maybe need more small shrimps) but not bad for first-timer!

Taro Rice

Reference recipe: http://www.deliciousasianfood.com/2008/05/13/yam-rice/

Past few months flew by so fast, I’m in CA 1 year already!!! I’m not sure what I’ve done to be blessed with many good things including a job in THIS economy, good friends and supportive companion, great guardians to watch over me and help me whenever I needed, a very reliable car and a great opportunity to learn about the financial services business. Can’t imagine what else I could ask for ^_^

About the economy, I personally know a bunch of people got laid off from their jobs -mostly engineers that’s been in the field a long time including a high level technical director. I met a new friend who’s a phlebotomist (medical person who draws blood at a private blood donation center) got laid off last month, she has 2 young kids and I suspect no husband around.

I’ve been talking a lot about setting goals in the beginning of the year. But without action, goals cannot become a reality. So I commited to myself that I will bring my parents to the US next year for my graduation ceremony in May, spring season. I’d finance their flight ticket and other expenses. This is like a short-term goal to help reinforce my discipline and habits in order to reach my long-term goal to be financially independent. Lately, I find myself taking more actions than ever before in order to achieve that. And today, I reached an important milestone, I’m really proud of myself. The amount of time I talk to my brain, worked on my mental toughness, make myself to take actions, face my fears and finally, I’m seeing some small results… Lesson learnt: Set the goals, but more importantly, TAKE ACTION!!!

Happy Anniversary to me!

A recent pic taken from a potluck, this is the Malaysian group I associate with.

Malaysian Professional Business Association (MPBA) committee

Lali and I met during the CNY party organized by the MPBA group. She wasn't trying to kill me. She's a great cook!

]]> http://janeaw.wordpress.com/2009/05/09/has-it-been-1-year-already/feed/ 3 janeaw mpba_1 mpba_lali http://janeaw.wordpress.com/2009/02/26/i-made-karipap/ http://janeaw.wordpress.com/2009/02/26/i-made-karipap/#comments Fri, 27 Feb 2009 00:37:56 +0000 janeaw http://janeaw.wordpress.com/?p=164 ]]>

Karipap

Thanks to TINA for the recipe!

Here is the recipe of the curry puff.

I am not sure what time the potluck will start, but you can prepare the filling in advanced. And bake them before you’re going to the potluck. If you would like to reheat them at the potluck, just slightly bake them, so that when you arrive at the potluck host’s home, you can use their oven to rebake them into golden , crunchy Kari Puff!!

I give you vegetarian recipe, you can add egg/chicken next time.

1. curry powder
2. 4 pototes (for 2 boxes of the pastry), diced
3. 1 big yellow onion (diced)
4. curry leaves (get it from Ranch 99, but sometimes it is not available)
5. 1 big can of coconut milk
6. seasoning (salt, chili paste to make it hotter)
7. pepperidge farm pastry 2 boxes (http://www.pepperidgefarm.com/ProductDetail.aspx?catID=767&prdID=120690), two sheets inside, you can cut each sheet into 9 even pieces. Make them nice simple finger snack!
8. Egg yolk (optional, just spread them on the top of the kari puff, so they will turn into golden, shining color after bake)

a) heat the oil and stir fried 3, follow by 2, 1, 4 and lastly 5,6 . The filling should be kind of mushy with some chunky potatoes. If it still couldn’t turn soft, add some water…but i think coconut milk should be good enough.
b) put the filling into the pastry sheet, wrap them and use the fork to press the edge of wrap to “secure” it, so the filling won’t come out. Use the fork to make some holes on the top of the kari puff, so the filling won’t come out so easily.
c) use 8 to spread them on the top of the kari puff before put them into oven. I forgot how many minutes i baked….you can read the pastry sheet instruction box, reduce 5 minutes in case they turn black charcoal color…keep an eye on them…..

Note:
a) do not defrost the pastry, slightly defrost is okay, coz once they turn soft, they are very sticky and hardly to fold them..the hot filling will soften them, don’t worry.
b) don’t wrap the curry leaves, take them out.
c)coz it is vege, not much flavor, you might need to add some msg/chicken flavor/ajinomoto hondashi…

Went to Nicolino Garden Cafe, an authentic Italian restaurant to celebrate my 6th month being in the USA.

Pasta @ Nicolino Garden Cafe

cosy corner

I’m bad, I had roasted rabbit last night for dinner at the Stinking Rose “Garlic” restaurant in San Francisco. The restaurant is famous with their garlic in olive oil condiment, boy, they don’t call it Stinking Rose for nothing :-/ Had garlicy breath the whole night!

Well, you know what they always say about tasting new meat – “taste just like chicken!”. Actually, it DOES taste like chicken

I

Roasted Rabbit with pasta