Christmas Vacation @ New Orleans

During the Christmas holidays, we (Joseph, Hsing, Victor and Michelle) went to New Orleans. I haven’t been going on any vacation like this before. (Double Date.) I had a good time w/ brothers and sisters. We did visit Eric&BH during our trip and stayed at their sweet home for one night. (Thank you, Eric&BH!!!!)

Their kids are so lovely.

We went to eat the famous beignets in Cafe Du Monde.

They also took us to a pretty cake shop called Sucree. Their cakes are so pretty but costly…

Too bad that I couldn’t take a lot of pictures because my camera was broken during the trip. (my 節儉 husband fixed it after the trip... :p)

Christmas Eve’s Party @ Uncle Ken and Aunt Agnes’ Place

 

Past Christmas eve, we went to their place for party. I made a strawberry mousse cake.

Cindy's Wedding Cake

This is my first time making a wedding cake. Thank Cindy for giving me this opportunity. It took me 1 1/2 days to finish this cake. The cake is vanilla flavor with various fruit mousse fillings. (strawberry, apple, and mango) No one would know what kind of flavor they were going to have.

Another closer picture. Thanks Edison for taking pictures for me. For my blog visitors, if you took any picture for this cakes, please send me an e-mail. Really appreciate....

Thanksgiving Night at Johnny&Gina's Place.

We went to Johnny&Gina's place on Thanksgiving night.

I made a small mango mousse cake and fruit tarts this time.

Here're the pictures.

Joseph and I stayed at their house until 11:30pm and went to the outlet at 290 to see the crowd people.

Here's the 實況.

(Fairfield Exit)

It took us 10~15 min to exit hwy 290 and another 15~20mins to find a parking lot.

We did not buy many things but it was really a good experience to see how crazy ppl are.

圓球麵包&肉鬆捲麵包

These were made long time ago... They were made for Joseph's worship team's breakfast. I also made 包子. The reason I made so many kinds this time is to appreciate all co-workers' hard working.

I really like the round buns. It was tasty and cute. The trick to make it so 圓 is I left the dough in mini muffin pan.

Here's the 剖面圖~~ The left one is custard flavor and the right one is red beans. (again. I used red bean can.)

終於成功了~~~^____^~~~

老公再幾個小時就要回來了(凌晨), 所以得做些麵包給他當早餐。

一直以來麵包和土司是我做點心上面的障礙, 唯一比較拿手的吐司只有波特吐司, 經過了幾次不同的食譜, 終於發現我的麵包一直扁扁的原因, 結果好像是酵母粉放太少, 我參考的食譜大部分都是台灣的, 所以酵母粉又跟這裡不一樣, 這次做的時候多放了一點, 然後改用溫水代替涼水, 效果變比較好, 發酵的比較成功, 但是在做波蘿麵包的時候, 好像還是有點扁扁的....

順帶一提的是, 這些蔥都是產自"陳家菜圃"喔~~ ^__^

蔥花麵包

地瓜麵包

迷你蔥花捲麵包

菠蘿麵包

我家對面的黃金單身漢...

If you've been to our house, you would know there's a single man living across the street. He's quite handy. He does all the house maintenance by himself. He also decorates his yard according to different season. Since Halloween is coming, he has started to decorate his yard couple weeks ago. Joseph told me he did the same design last year. 墳墓, 幽靈, 骷顱頭, 蜘蛛和蜘蛛網

You even can hear the 鬼叫聲 at night time. It might sound scary, but I think it's funny. because I've never really seen this kind of decoration before....

11/1/08

補上昨天萬聖節的照片, 這個單身漢真得很厲害, 不但把家門口布置得很可怕, 自己還打扮成死神在門口發糖果, 昨天他還把斷頭台, 一堆骷顱, 棺材還有木乃伊搬出來, 還把garage door掛上鐵圍籬的布, 以前看到這些還會覺得怪可怕的, 我想我們基督徒可能都覺得那些是無稽之談, 所以我看到時的反應居然是很好玩而不是很可怕~

老公不在家

Joseph went to TW and China for business travel for 18days.

This is the first time I am home along after getting married. (actually it's only 8.5 months)

I dunno how other sisters do when their husbands are not home for a while....

At least for myself, I'm kindda bored... Even though Joseph calls me twice a day, I still feel lonely especially at night. (I have a lot of things need to be done such as study, homework, housework etc. but I don't have much feeling to do.)

Today is the first Saturday w/o Joseph. Stayed at home all day.

 

BTW, the following is the cantaloupe we harvested on the day Joseph left (Wed.). Joseph said it's worth it even though this is the first time that successfully fruited.

Thanks to Michelle & Victor for letting us know that not to water too much when it's fruiting. The cantaloupe was sweet. Hope it will fruit more in the future. (It only cost us around $2~$4 at Home Depot...:p)

We also seeded asparagus in our 菜圃... Hope it will grow...

紅豆麵包 & 蔥花麵包

今天心血來潮想要再試試看麵包，之前用的食譜一直失敗，這次參考我常看的食譜，這個配方原本是for吐司的，我想說都是麵包類，就來做成麵包，一開始發的還不錯，第二次發酵時好像沒發夠，所以烤出來沒有很澎澎的感覺(不過很紮實)

懶得自己做紅豆泥，就用韓國的紅豆罐頭，還不錯吃...

至於蔥花麵包，裡頭什麼都沒包，只有在表面塗了蔥油(青蔥+奶油)

 

第一次發酵後

第二次發酵

陳家菜圃

這個夏天太熱了, 又忙著學一大堆東西, 似乎遺忘了我們家的菜圃,

小阿姨給了我們一張HomeDepot的Gift Card所以我們幾個月前去買了一堆土,但是一直沒時間,

好不容易我們家先生考完GMAT了, 把我們家的菜圃擴大了一倍~^__^~

來介紹一下我們家菜圃的成員

地瓜葉 (吃剩下的莖泡水長根後就可以種下去了

韭菜花 (可是我們辛辛苦苦從種子種成這樣的唷!!開花了說, 颶風來之前還剪了一些來吃)

木瓜"樹" (謝謝貝絲小姐送我們好多木瓜苗, 這棵的莖越來越粗囉~)

甜瓜 (我們幾個月前去HomeDepot買的小小苗, 爬得我們整個菜圃都是, 之前結了兩個果, 都被鳥戳破, 這次颶風來之前去看的時候突然發現有一棵躲在木瓜樹下面, 大概是我的一個半隻手吧!)

 

九層塔 (這是我們去吃越南麵的時候拿了兩根莖回來泡根, 我們家還有另外一種九層塔是從種子種的, 但是那個味道很重, 跟我們平常種的不一樣)

 

Parsley (也不知道為什麼我當初要種, 這個我覺得不好吃)

對了, 還有三個成員, 第一個是一小顆芭樂樹躲在裡面, 還有最容易種的蔥, 第三個就是葡萄柚樹, 以上就是我們家菜圃的成員, 陸續還會有更多的成員加入菜圃。

下次要試試看種番茄。。。

蛋黃酥 for Cindy&CW's Wedding + 參加婚禮後的感想

Cindy&CW的婚禮剛好遇到中秋節，Cindy想在婚禮結束後送客人蛋黃酥，所以我就幫他們做蛋黃酥。

這真是一大挑戰，因為我還答應要幫他們做蛋糕，兩百人份的蛋黃酥和蛋糕，有點可怕......:p

因為颶風Ike要來，我們都很擔心，不過Cindy&CW很有信心，在這次他們的婚禮當中真的看到神在他們身上的恩典，神的恩典並不因為風雨而減少，就像許牧師說的，雖然缺水缺電，但是神的愛卻不缺席。

趕在颶風Ike來之前把蛋黃酥的材料買好，因為Cindy&CW的婚禮儀式結束後還是要送客人蛋黃酥，原本預計要做一百五十個，禮拜五做了八十個，豆沙用完了，所以晚上趕快再做了一些豆沙，結果禮拜六半夜颶風登陸，居然停電...... >___<

所以最後只有八十個，好像還不夠送客人...其實我禮拜五還有烤了兩個芒果慕斯蛋糕，(因為芒果已經買好要做蛋糕，不做的話就壞掉了)

所以禮拜天儀式結束後，有一個小小的茶會，(謝謝Edison買了一些cookies和飲料)

這是我來美國後參加的婚禮當中最有意義的一個婚禮，不光是因為是我最好的姊妹，也是因為在他們交往的日子裡，我們總是彼此鼓勵代禱，看到他們終於完成終身大事，心中還滿感動的...

  (Cindy, sorry I copied ur pic...:p)

還有, 最後再來一張他們漂亮的蛋黃酥盒子~