Early snow in the fall...

This year, we had snow earlier than the regular season, two snows within 3 days. Supposely, Oct is the season for beautiful orange-yellow leaves, but now we see the snow in the fall. As you can see from the picture, the trees are still green and red. A friend of mine said that we don't really have summer but fall, and no fall but winter in MN...which I think it is very true...I think...I'm a strong polar bear XD

Lousy driver with the GPS...

I do not drive oftenly after I came to St Cloud, it is not because my driving skill not good, but I have a very talented Ahmad-LKM, so I'm the talented passenger too :p I only drive very very short distance to the nearest grocery market and post office.

Today, I wanted to go to Walmart, just located 12-15 mins from our place, yet I can't recognize the way (remember I'm the passenger *wink*). I told LKM that I need to use the GPS...as expected, he stared at me...**speechless**...Guess what happened?Even with the GPS, I got lost...took the double of estimated time to both Walmart and back home...made more than 5 times detour on the GPS, as I missed all the instructions from the GPS...

When I told LKM, he just shaked his head and said..."next time you drive..."

My best friends here laugh at me when they know that I need a GPS for Walmart...

I'm very good at driving & recognizing the way...but I become a lousy driver when this comes with the GPS...my brain, eyes, ears, hands and legs cannot function at the same time =p

A little girl without Mama

Few days ago, when I was taking bus home from the China Town in Flushing, New York. I over-heard this conversation between 2 grandma in the bus, they just stood in front of me. Grandma A was hugging her grand daughter on her chest (I believe this little girl is at least 3-4 years old), grandma B was the friend of grandma A.

This conversation is translated from mandarin, and I just cut the long story short.

Grandma B: Hey...how you doing, long time no see, you doing good???

Grandma A: Tired, really tired...I really don't feel like taking care these kids...I'm just so tired!!!

Grandma B: Where's the mama?

Grandma A: Ran away already...(then she started to sniff...I can see the tears in her eyes as our distance was very close)...nobody can help her dad if I don't help him, he needs to work to survive the family. Otherwise, I would go back to China already...

Grandma B: I'm so sorry...take it easy..easy...don't be sad...

The little girl: Grandma...are we going home for lunch???

Grandma A: Yeah...

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I always think kids without mom and dad are the saddest thing in the world. May be I have the same experience, so I know the feeling. When I heard about this conversation, my heart was so painful, my heart was crying too.

The little girl, she looks so innocent and pretty...I really feel so sorry for her; at the same time I'm touching that her grandma is so mercy and mighty, she is still willing to help and take cares this girl and her other siblings.

I hope and pray for them, for the grandma to stay healthily, for the little girl to be a happy and good person in the future. And lastly, for all the mama-will never never never leave their kids behind.

.....Bon Appetit.....

The measure of achievement is not winning awards. It's doing something that you appreciate, something you believe is worthwhile. I think of my strawberry souffle. I did that at least twenty-eight times before I finally conquered it.
- Julia Child

Synopsis:

Meryl Streep is Julia Child and Amy Adams is Julie Powell in writer-director Nora Ephron’s adaptation of two bestselling memoirs: Powell’s Julie & Julia and My Life in France, by Julia Child with... Meryl Streep is Julia Child and Amy Adams is Julie Powell in writer-director Nora Ephron’s adaptation of two bestselling memoirs: Powell’s Julie & Julia and My Life in France, by Julia Child with Alex Prud’homme.

Based on two true stories, Julie & Julia intertwines the lives of two women who, though separated by time and space, are both at loose ends...until they discover that with the right combination of passion, fearlessness and butter, anything is possible.

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Julie & Julia. I'm just so felt in love with this movie. On Thursday late afternoon, LKM and I decided to watch this movie before his summer holidays end and Fall semester starts this coming Monday. I watched the review of this movie when I had My sister's keepers with my gf couple weeks ago. I would give an A++, 5 stars, incredible, fantastic, awesome, excellent, SUPER...whatever fabulous word that I can describe this movie. This is the Best Movie I had ever watch in my entire life, perhaps it was about the cooking & baking.

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It was a inspirational, delightful movie full of humor and life lessons. I personally love Meryl Streep this character, of course her acting. Without questioning, Meryl Streep successfully transformed herself into character. She actually had you believing she was Julia Child. She is lovely, charming, humorous and a happy go lucky woman. Her acting was really good, love her slogan "Bon Appetit" which means good appetite or enjoy your meal in the movie, the way an American trying to speaks in French accent. :)

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Julie @ Amy Adams, she is so beautiful in this movie. I must give my salute to her, for her passion and self-discipline to accomplish the project (to finish 524 recipes in 365 days) on time. Although she faces difficulties, but she still managed to cleam them up and keep going. The movie does included her strong, romantic love journey with her hubby. It's funny that Julie mentioned that she loves her hubby so much just like the pigs loves shit. :P

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Things that I've learned from this movie-it's never too late or too old to let ours star shine. One seemingly small step can end up changing our life, just like Julia's (Meryl Streep) husband saying in the movie, when he was trying Julia not to give up on her hope to get some one in sponsoring her to publish the cook book. He said: "Your book will changes the whole world". And yes, she did! Do whatever we enjoy or talented at, with what God has gave us, we never know who we might inspire.

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There're so much I want to comment about this movie...

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Phew....OKOK... I think this is long enough...I wont's spoil this movie for you, go watch it. Hope you enjoy the movie.

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"Bon Appetittttttttttttttt...." :)

Vege Tuna Buns

If you know me very well, I'm a "bread" person, any kind of breads...put anything buns in front of me, my knees start to go weak...hehe...over the years, I've collected various of bread recipes. I particularly prefer the Asean style bread.
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This reminds me of the Indian uncle who used to ride on his small motorbike and sell 'roti' (bread in Malay) in my neighborhood, when I was still a little kid...my favorite bun..."Apollo", a type of long sweet bun with the creamy filling inside with different flavor, such as vanilla, pandan, coffee and chocolate. It only cost 25 cents (the price back to 10 years ago) for this yummy and delicious long bun. I'm wondering if they still sell this bun in M'sia, I hope they do so that I still have the chance to eat them when I go home next time.

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Bread, pastry, cake, pie and cookie. If you ask me to choose which one I like to eat the most, I'll list them in this sequence. There's why I never bake any cookie before ;p Apparently, I do agree that baking bread is much more easier comparing with others that may require special skills or baking method. I'll say baking bread is the most easiest than any other pastry and dessert.

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Last Saturday, I suddenly had the very strong "ohm" to make some buns, and I've decided to use the vege tuna as filling as I promised my friends that I wanna make for time since ages year ago. I remember that I read a pasty baking recipe book before, this famous France baker has mentioned that as a purist, he prefers using the artisan approach, working by his own hands instead of using any eletrical mixer if unneccessary. I was joking with LKM that this save some money on my dream Kitchen aid mixer, because I have a pair of "solar hands" =p
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Can you imagine how powerful is the little yeats, that make the dough size increase in double. I love the dough raising part alot. I love seeing and enjoying each moment, when peeping to see if my little dough is growing or not. ;p It's so exciting!!!

The not-so-good looking before putting into the oven...

...ta-da ta-da...

SUCCESS SUCCESS SUCCESS!!!!guys...these buns really taste very GOOD, they are as soft as those 'chan pau' we eat in M'sia...

.A friend of mine, ate 5 buns at one sitting :) I feel happy I'm able to bake good stuffs for people around me, and they enjoy too. It's really lots of fun in baking, and I'm loving every bit of it.

OK...will post the recipe here later...^^

Go Green-Stopping Global Warming

It has been a while I didn't update my blog so often as before, a little bit busy with my sticker business these days. I guess it was because the time kids about going back to school, perhaps.

I woke up pretty early today, as I promised LKM to make him breakfast before he goes to work. Just a simple healthy combo breakfast-banana pancake with mable syrup, and soy milk. This is a very simple and nice pancake recipe that I found couple weeks ago, but this time I replaced the milk with soy milk, and the margarine with oil. It turn out to be good too :)

I wasn't feel good these few days. As I talked with a friend here, and my buddy in Melbourne,Australia, I don't feel good that everyday when I read the news, typhoon is hitting TW and mainland China, tsunami is expected in Indian Ocean and Japan again, earthquake happens every where, even airplan crash is now happens more and more frequent...the change of the climate and weather, global warming, make the planet earth sick...sigh...

I just read an article couple minutes ago, global warming is actually causes the increase of temperature, much more rain is anticipated as the ice caps melt. As a result, rising sea levels could cause much more severe flooding especially in low-lying coastal areas...if we go back to the beginning, it's no doubts why is it rain flood and forest fires happens so often in everywhere- human-caused greenhouse gases, such as carbon dioxide and methane.

One's lifestyle changes can actually reduce and solve the global warming problem by reducing the CO2 that leads to this severe problem, these are pretty knowledgeable information even I didn't know about it:

-NO#1 cause of global warming. According to the United Nations, raising animals for food generates more greenhouse-gas emissions than all the cars, planes, ships, trucks, and trains in the world combined. So, save our planet-GO VEGETARIAN, at least try to take less meats.

-At home,replacing incandescent light bulb with compact fluorescent light bulbs can save 300 pounds of carbon dioxide a year.

-Moving the thermostat down 2 degrees in winter and up 2 degrees in summer can save 2000 pounds of carbon dioxide annually.

-Driving less, carpool to work can reduce annual carbon dioxide output by thousands of pounds annually.

-Buy Local and Organic-chemicals used in modern agriculture pollute the water supply, and require energy to produce.

-Air Dry Your Clothes-Line-dry your clothes in the spring and summer instead of using the dryer. Save 700 lbs. of carbon dioxide and $75 per year.

-Saving energy at home is good for the environment.

-Become a smart water consumer.

-Plant a Tree, protect a forest.

-Reduce! Reuse! Recycle!-producing new paper, glass, and metal products from recycled materials saves 70 to 90 percent of the energy and pollution, including CO2.

-Last but not least, spread the word!!!

For more simple things we can do in our daily live to solve the global warming, here's the link for more details:

http://www.stopglobalwarming.org/sgw_actionitems.asp

As people like you and I get involved, the future will become safer and cleaner for us and the future generations.

A Day Worth of Hope for All of Us !!!!

Truly inspirational video for everyone....do share this with you friends...