Word of Encouragement

Don't envy others because you don't know how big your carrot is yet.

Stay happy and never give up.

This is for myself and others. Cheers :)

Roti Paratha

Found this at my local supermarket, it's delicious and also easy to cook.

So similar to Chinese scallion pancake, but thinner. I got the onion flavor and love it.

The package and my cooked version of paratha

What it looks like raw

Pan fried it on a non-sticky pan with oil and medium fire

Finished product on cookie sheet to absorb any excess oil

Close up of the paratha

A Secret Affair

A Secret Affair is very romantic. Vanessa, the female main character, is a perfect girl to everyone, smart, beautiful and a successful business woman. But she is not living her life, not following her passion and about to marry the man she doesn't love. She's doing what she thinks is proper. Bill, the male main character, is a charming Irish reporter, a widower and has a daughter. They met in Venice and fell in love. Their romance changed both of their lives positively. I enjoyed watching this film in a cold and snowy day at home. Love the music, the story and the beautiful scenes of Venice. Though it's very romantic, it's also kind of unrealistic to me. I am not sure how two people can fall madly in love within four days, but some people do have love at first sight.

Skirt Length

Saw this funny picture about skirt length on FaceBook, thought I share it. According to some people, different skirt lengths mean different things. I don't totally agree, just thought it's funny. 

Bake Pork Katsu

Made my version of pork katsu, bake. Not a fan of pork, but once in a while my brother buy pork katsu from the Japanese restaurant down stair. Founded some pork cutlets in the freezer, so decided to make it for him. Doesn't look pretty, some coating fell off when I flip it, but taste good according to my brother :)

Ingredients: 

Pork cutlets, 1 egg, Lee Kum Kee's Korean BBQ sauce, rice wine, Worcestershire sauce, bread crumbs, soy sauce, salt and pepper

Directions:

1. Wash the pork cutlets and clean it thoroughly

2. For each pork cutlet, use the back of the knife and pound the entire surface evenly or use a meat pounder if you have one

3. Mix the BBQ sauce, rice wine, Worcestershire sauce, soy sauce, salt and pepper all together in a big bowl ( I eye measured everything, so put what you think its appropriate)

4. Put the pork cutlets in the sauce bowl and let them marinate for 10 to 15 minutes

5. On a separate bowl, put in a raw egg and beat it

6. On a plate, pour out some bread crumbs

7. Dip the marinated pork cutlet into the egg bowl to coat it evenly with egg, then dip it into the plate with bread crumbs

8. Make sure the pork cutlet is coated with bread crumbs evenly on both side ( repeat the same steps for each cutlet)

9. On the baking pan, put on a layer of foil paper, spray it with cooking oil ( you can skip the foil paper and spray  the oil on top of the pan, I am just lazy to clean)

10. Put the pork cutlets evenly on the baking pan and spray more cooking oil on top of the cutlets

11. Put the baking pan with pork cutlets into the oven

12. Set the temperature to 380 degree and it should be done after 30 minutes

13. Flip the the pork cutlet after 15 to 20 minutes to make sure both side are crispy

(As you can see, I didn't do a good job of flipping, some of the coating fell off )

14. Serve it with ketchup or just eat it as it is

15. It goes well with rice and curry dishes 

Note: you can marinate your meat with what ever sauce available at home, it should come out fine. Rice wine kind of get rid of the meat smell and make it taste better

Warm Bodies

It's so cold in the North East.  Yesterday was like 17 degree and I didn't feel like going anywhere. All I wanted was to bundle up in a warm blanket and drink a cup of hot cocoa. However, I said yes to a movie plan earlier in the week and feel bad if I cancel last minute. Therefore, I went out for a movie in the freezing cold.

The movie is called Warm Bodies and it's coming out in February. It's kind of different than the movies I would normally watch. A zombie movie with a love story behind it.  The ending is predictable and there are a few funny and sweet scenes. Overall, it's okay. I am not a movie critic, just my personal opinions. Everyone has different taste in movies, mine is more on the comedy side :)

Sick Wednesday

Working from home today, more like sleeping at home.  The weather has been so cold this week and somehow I caught a cold. It's not too bad, but I feel so drowsy and not energetic at all. My mind is blank and it's hard to keeps my eyes open. Hopefully it gets better. 

Stay warm everyone and wear more layers.

Girl's Talk- The Ideal Guy

This is more like a split entry of what I wrote a while ago about "The Dream Guy". My friend and I were talking about guys. 

Below are some of our discussions. An ideal guy is:

• Someone to laugh, cry and share life’s ups and downs with
• Someone that you feel comfortable with to be yourself
• Someone that loves and understands you, communication is the key
• Someone that listens and give you good advices
• Someone that you can joke with and to be playful around
• Someone that’s your soul mate
• Someone that's loyal and supportive
• Someone that you are happy with, someone that makes you laugh and fill life with happiness
• Someone that's responsible, reliable and caring 
• Someone to kiss with in Central park and the world world freezes at that moment (one of my BFF said that)
• Someone to spoiled you like a kid and treat you like a queen ( one of my BFF said that as well)
• Someone to travels with and enjoy the world together

Happy Monday and Hair Care Products

Happy Monday, everyone :)

Planned to get a hair oil treatment in the salon today, but my friends told me that the result doesn't really last and it's better to buy the hair oil myself. So I went to the Ulta website to see ratings of different hair products. Founded a few that I like and started adding products to the basket. But I just remembered that you need $50 worth of products to get free shipping, and at the moment I don't really have anything to buy besides hair oil and may be shampoo. So I decided to go to CVS instead.

My hair type is fine and combination/oily. But after I dyed my hair a few months ago, it became dry. Since then I've been looking for good moisturizing hair products.The Neutrogena Triple Moisture has really good ratings online, was hoping to find it in CVS, but didn't see it in my local store.

Instead, I got Organix macadamia oil and L'Oreal's EverPure shampoo. I have been using the EverPure shampoo and love how it's gentle on my color treated hair. Haven't try the macadamia oil yet, hope it turns out well. If you have any suggestions for good hair products, please let me know :)  Thanks.

Busy Week and Movie Weenkend

This week has been so busy, studying every day and night, finally done with all the exams. It seemed like 'busy' is the term that I used so often. From Monday to Thursday, my brain was on UNIX, SQL and other materials. Friday night, I didn't have to study for anymore exams and felt so empty. It's kind of weird, didn't feel happy, just empty. Not sure why I felt so empty, may be it's the sudden free time. Always feel bored after doing nothing for a little while, not sure if any of you feel that way. When I am busy, I wish I have some free time. But when I am free, I wish I have more things to work on. So basically, I missed what I don't have.

Used Friday night to catch up on lots of movies and also on Sunday. To name a few: How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days, The Switch and Les Miserables. Watched most of the movies online except for Les Miserables, saw that with a friend in the theater. It was a great musical movie. While waiting for the movie to start, saw the preview of Gatsby. I am so looking forward to it. Read the book in high school and also saw different versions of the story made into movies. The newest version is coming out in the Spring this year.

Hot Pot with Long Time Friends

I was feeling so tired and no energy to do anything last night, skipped on a lot of works and everything is piled up for today. Still haven't start anything yet. My lovely friends came for a visit and just left. The last time they were here was a year or two ago, enjoyed girls talk and great conversations. Now half of my friends are married or close to being married, it's kind of hard to get them out of their house.

This week has been long and busy. Hung out with three groups of people for my birthday, it's was lots of fun.  I really appreciate family and friends spending time with me,  make life so much better. For the past few days, I had Thai, Mexican and Chinese hot pot. Everything was awesome.

Yesterday was an emotional roller coaster for me, don't want to get into the details. But I am fine now, more worried about my friend. Let's hope everything gets better. Tomorrow will be a better day :D

Short Week But Felt Like Forever

New Years' Day was on a Tuesday this year and I have work on Wednesday. Though the work week is short, but it felt long since I am still in the holiday mood. First day of work was brutal, couldn't even open my eyes. The break spoiled my sleeping habit and also messed it up. Enjoyed the first half of the break, the rest was dealing with insomnia. So imagine tossing and turning on bed and waking up at 6 a.m in the morning right after the new year. Some of my friends have this problem as well, not sure if anyone of you feel that way.

This week is all about project support, learning all the terms and information relating to the project management, agile and scrum. Hopefully I'll able to use and implement them in the near future. 

Officially New Year 2013

It's 2013! Hope everyone have an awesome year.  I was on the phone with two of my closest friends when the clock hit 12 and the date turned 1/1/2013. Lots of texts were coming in and out :) Great moment of the day. Fireworks are still playing in my neighborhood.

Time for new year resolutions and here it goes:

• Get an awesome job
• Sleeps and wakes up early
• Go to the gym more often, loose weight and be healthier
• Improve my writing
• Learn more vocabularies
• Learn a new computer language
• Re-learn my Japanese
• Do more readings
• Develop a Website
• Get a bf and kiss him when the ball drops for 2014