Taken during my flight to Hong Kong

That is one of the most captivating things to look at: the feeling of flying above the clouds

Another great feeling of looking down onto the city from a bird’s eye view.

This was taken before I landed in Frankfurt (a transit point to go to Egypt)

This was taken between my flight from Frankfurt to Egypt (I think).

The feeling of looking down on a strip of mountains, especially those that are covered (partially) with snow.

I used this recipe as a guide: http://southernfood.about.com/od/applepies/r/bl50808a.htm

Here’s what it looks like:

Personally, I love pies a lot.  Although my favorite is Strawberry and rhubarb pie.  I definitely will be aiming to bake one of those this summer.  This apple crumble recipe was pretty good actually.  The only issue I had was that it had a lot of juice.  I`m thinking if I used less apples next time then it should be good.  Also, I probably would decrease the sugar a bit. I’m guessing that I’ll be moving onto my next recipe soon as I will preparing for the next Birthday Potluck where I will make my almond cookies (as shown in a previous blog) and make the cake.  The exact one is still being decided by the Birthday boy.

Hope you enjoyed the post!

One of my friends is hosted an awesome birthday potluck party.  I contributed steamed dumplings.  There were two kinds: Chicken Dumplings and Pork Dumplings.  I had my mom help me out and guide me as I haven’t made them in a while.

Steamed Pork Dumplings (mixed pork with spinach)

Steamed Chicken Dumplings

(mixed chicken with shitake mushrooms and bamboo shoots)

I was happy that everyone finished it and said that it tasted really good! I would have to agree that it tasted pretty good.  Of course there were little issues that I will improve I make them again.

Side note: it isn’t baking but I didn’t really get to baking my apple crumble pie so dumplings will have to do this time.  Another baking adventure should be coming up soon! Any suggestions?

I know I try very hard to achieve it.  I give my all to everything and everyone and I’m learning to make decisions and choices that no matter what the result, I believe that its taught me in some way to improve physically or psychologically.

The picture below shows the new perfume that I bought and the philosophy that came on the box.   In case, its not clear, here is what it says: ” how you climb up the mountain is just as important as how you get down the mountain, and, so it is with life, which for many of us becomes one big gigantic test followed by one gigantic lesson….  Its how you accept winning and losing, good luck and bad luck, the darkness and the light.”

Everyone will have regrets some point in their life.  We have regrets because we’ve learned better from those “gigantic lessons” and from learning acceptance.  The idea of accepting what happens around and to us in different situations and dealing with all the good and bad situations in life gives up the experience to eventually learn how to live life with no regrets.

I know that I am slowly learning how to minimize the possibility of having regrets in my life.  My past regrets have taught me how to treat myself a bit better and deal better with present and future situations.

People who know me would consider me a romantic, but the most girly interest I may have is watching romantic comedies.  I love watching them all the time.  This list is made up of 10 of my favorite romantic comedies.  My boyfriend pitched in two that he really enjoyed (which are also my favorites). At the end I’ll put down  which ones he would sit down and watch with me willingly.

I usually enjoy doing movie marathons for certain events in the year.  This year I didn’t do a Valentine’s Movie Marathon because I’m doing one of my whole movie collection but if I were to have one, here’s what it’d look like!

(Please note that these are not in any particular order)

LETTERS TO JULIET

Not only is the story very cute, its also about all the things we’d like to have.  Some crazy romance goose chase looking for a long lost love while a younger love is developing.   Along with that, its paired up with a lot of happy love songs from Colbie Caillat in the background.  Every time I finish watching this movie, I just feel absolutely fantastic.

THE PROPOSAL

Ryan Reynolds and Sandra Bullock is really a combination that cannot be a disaster.  I’m a huge Sandra Bullock fan and this movie was so hilarious.

VALENTINE’S DAY

I don’t think this one needs a whole lot of explanation.  Valentine’s Day to watch on Valentine’s Day seems to be reasonable.  Aside from that point, this movie was pretty  lighthearted.  I particularly loved Anne Hathaway’s character as she brought this crazy humorous take to her story.  In general, this movie was extremely fun to watch.

P.S. I LOVE YOU

I’m still a bit confused as to whether this can be considered a romantic comedy but then I did find the movie rather funny.  For sure, the beginning wasn’t as funny.  We all know losing a loved one is not funny but then the way she had to do everything she was told to pick herself up was a very sweet on the part of her husband.  The point of romantic comedies is to live through a situation that you’d hope could happen to you.  In this case, it wouldn’t be being widowed relatively young, but to be able to have someone who would have thought through so much because of his love, that he’d want you to move on and be happy after he had passed on.

27 DRESSES

This is possibly Katherine Heigl’s best romantic comedy.  She’s done multiple after but this one was pretty good.  I’ve personally watched many times and I still always like to watch it.

CLUELESS

The modern day Emma movie adaptation.  I first saw this movie in one of my English classes called Movies and Cinema and we were reading the book Emma.  I was never a fan of romantic comedies nor Alicia Silverstone but this movie was hilarious.  Maybe its because it had an amusing take of the story and of growing up and finding true love.  It was a very funny and uplifting movie to watch.

LIFE AS WE KNOW IT

This is one of my most recent romantic comedy additions.  Another Katherine Heigl movie with Josh Duhamel.  I found this movie quite entertaining.  Getting thrown responsiblities before they were ready and dealing with it step by step.  About how people can grow up and change to adapt to sudden situations in life, I think its a very encouraging movie for anyone.

MY LIFE IN RUINS

I had a debate over this one or My Big Fat Greek Wedding but this one won.  I liked this movie because the actor was just crazy.  You had never imagined what the guy was like through the whole movie, then unexpectedly she falls for him.  Turns out the guy that looked horrible in the beginning  becomes this charming man.  It shows us how love is unexpected and comes when we least expect it to.

Finally, my guy’s pick (because we all know despite loving watching romantic comedies with the girls or watching all the action movie with the boyfriend, its important to have him willingly sit next to you and enjoy a nice romantic comedy once in a while).

JUST GO WITH IT

This is another new addition to my movie collection and I watched it recently with my boyfriend and he totally loved it.  Adam Sandler usually makes pretty decent comedies.  Although, that is more the case in his older ones such as Spanglish (I’m not completely sure if there were other romantic comedies though).  I don’t really know how to describe this movie without sounding repetitive but this movie was downright hilarious.  The whole cast was fantastic and the dialogue was just absolutely great.  It was definitely fun to watch. We all need a good laugh.

HOW TO LOSE A GUY IN 10 DAYS

Kate Hudson and Matthew McConnaughey had crazy connection in this movie.  This movie really was a great trip.  How much can a guy take before you reach his breaking point in a relationship?  Although I’m not sure any girl would go to that extreme because if they did, they would be pretty scary stuff.

So my Valentine’s marathon had started in January when I did end up watching most in these movies before today (Valentine’s Day)! Okay, its a bit late!  its technically not Valentine’s day anymore, but what better to match the season than to give fantastic choices of rom-coms.

I’m always up for more romantic comedies suggestions as they are one of the best solutions to relieve stress in my life.  Seeing my list, how many of you would agree with my choices? What are yours?

Here’s how it turned out:

I’ve also made a Christmas themed one before with pistachios and dried cranberries but that one was a bit softer in texture as it had butter/margarine as an additional ingredient. If anyone is interested in the recipe, please comment and I will find a way to send you a copy.

Enjoy!

Chinese New Year just passed.  Today is the 7th day of the Lunar New Year and its supposedly the day that we celebrate everyone’s birthday.  For Chinese New Year, our houses are all decorated with proverbs that wish for better things in the new year.  All the flowers we choose is a symbol of some sort of blessing or hope or wish for the new year.  The food we prepare also has significant meaning as well in hopes for having a more prosperous new year.

Here are a few examples:

This is an example of proverb that we hang around the house.

This one sends us hopes for a new year of happiness and achieving what our heart desires.

The flowers we choose to decorate our house is also those that bring on nice symbols of hopes for a better year.

We use lilies a lot to symbolize happiness/harmony in relationships.

Below we have the “string of gold” that I talked about last week.  Of course, this one symbolizes hopes for prosperity and fortune in the new year.

Being Chinese, the Lunar New Year has significant meanings other than simply the feast.  It brings in new hopes for the New Year.  Hopes for a better career, better health and most importantly, much more happy moments to come in the future.

This year, I decided to contribute a bit on my own.  I made some pretty good almond cookies. I found the recipe at here: http://chinesefood.about.com/od/dessertcookies/r/almondcookies.htm   The only ingredient that I didn’t have was the actual almond to put on the top of each cookie.  I believe it was still a decent cookie.  Everyone who tried it liked it.

This is how it turned out:

There will definitely be a second batch where I will add the almond on top.  It would probably made the overall appearance look nicer and at the same time, it would probably not only smell like almonds but rather taste a bit of the almond flavor as well.

Here I present to you my interpretation of SIMPLE in a very simple drawing (that’s the extent of my drawing skills).

The words: Simple (簡單）written out by hand in English and Chinese.

Simple is such a subjective term.  What may be simple to me may not be simple to you.  The only time when  I feel everyone will feel (almost) equally simple is when we are surrounded by nature.  The clouds, the sky, butterflies and flowers (and other living things), flowing rivers to great oceans, are all things we cannot control but when we are looking out into oceans (rivers and seas), we find inner peace.  When we look at the sky and the moving clouds gently pushed by the wind, we feel relaxation.  When we look at butterflies fluttering and flowers blooming (even budding), we feel wonder and natural beauty.  These feelings are natural, simple and come from our hearts.  But still, these are my interpretations and how I view it, but not necessarily  you or the next person to stop and read this blog.

An actual picture of what I mean:

Simple blossoms of a flower we call “String of Gold” in Chinese.  We have these flowers around the house slowly going into full blossom as it welcomes the Year of the Dragon.