My first American Meal

This post is abit outdated, it's now March 2014, and I have been in USA for about 3 months plus...
But can you guess what was my first meal when I arrived in America? It was The Cheesecake Factory!!
I've always wanted to try/eat the cheesecake here after learning about this delicious food chain from the drama sitcom 'The Big Bang Theory', and from numerous friends who said their cheesecakes were to die for...

Finally, my dreams came true....I finally tried it! I ordered the recommended Toasted Marshmallow S'mores Galore, and had my dessert first. It was so sweet, rich, and that felt really fattening.

After a few bites, I was feeling full and had little room in my stomach for mains, Shrimp with Angel Hair and Warm Asparagus Salad.

While stuffing myself silly with cake, I realized, American food are big in taste, meaning their food are rich in taste, meaning if I ate something that is sweet, it has got to be 10 times sweeter than what I would averagely eat. That supports my theory too, because whenever I bake a cake following an American recipe, I have to cut down the sugar.
So can you imagine how their appetizer/mains were? Super Tasty! Delicious! Explosion of taste buds! I'm not sure if that's good for health.

Their price are ok, not too expensive....It's definitely a treat to come eat at The Cheesecake Factory, so if I have visitors, this is definitely a to-go-to place :)

By the way, talking about tasty, do you think they use ajinomoto?

St Paddy Day Spring Clean for GRRH

To past my time in Houston as a housewife, I've been volunteering for Golden Retriever Rescue of Houston since January 2014. Lately, my volunteer work has picked up more workload as I'm helping a lady in the vet coordination duties. It's interesting to see the rescue's dedication to saving a stray's life, no matter the cost or effort. I've come across a few cases of stray golden retriever that have lumps on their body, and it may be cancerous, but the rescue are willing pay/do whatever it takes to keep them alive and well, and finding their forever home. Ensuring the dogs are spayed or neutered is one of my core duties. 

In a week, we get around 1 or 2 stray dogs in, and I will schedule a basic health exam for them. That's really a lot of money, so much so, I feel that the donation money that GRRH has is less than all the vet expenses.

So, recently there was a fundraiser event held to raise some money for the GRRH, and I volunteered to provide cupcakes for the party. The event was themed St Patrick's Day Spring Clean, it was a dog wash with an after party. I was suppose to also wash the dogs, but had to call off last minute because I was having some dizzy spells. Nevertheless, I must deliver all my hardwork, thanks to my Hubby for driving me to the event! 

I really love my cupcake box =) It's stack-able, and fits 12 medium sized cupcake in each box. I only paid USD 15 for this =)

I made 48 pieces of vanilla cupcakes. I spent alot of effort and time to design/print/cut those little flags =) I kind of regretted not adding some sprinkles on the top of cupcake to make it look pretty. To be honest, I am a newbie in frosting, so clearly it looks kinda fail....and I'm not really a fan of frosting because I'm not so much a sweet tooth.

One of my friend Lin who also volunteers for GRRH threw me a great idea to make doggy treats as well. So I made Bacon and Peanut Butter treats. I'm glad the dogs ate them, as you know dogs are very honest about food. So I guess I passed the treats test, even though it was my first time =)

My friend threw me the idea of organizing an event for GRRH to raise funds in the near future, I'm still contemplating, any ideas?

Happy Farm - Scallions

After reading an interesting post about regrowing your vegetables forever, I decided to start a little garden with scallions. The progress of re-growing scallions was very fast and very motivating, and I don't need even need a garden; just a cup, water, sugar and sunlight.

I was able to harvest my scallions after 2 weeks with some occasional sugar water change. 

I don't think I need to say much as the pictures below says it all. 

Scallions are common in Chinese cooking as garnish because they are fragrant, and lends a nice color to a dish. 

I'm so happy with my harvest =) Are you going to try this with me? =)