2wenty 12elve: Shirlock's Blog

The best 7-Up biscuits

2012-01-26T14:05:00.000-08:00

Today I made tonkatsu with mixed veg and 7-Up biscuits. These are just the best things to make if you need something to go as a side carb. Here's the recipe:

2 cups Bisquick*
1/2 cup sour cream
1/2 cup 7-up
1/4 cup melted butter

Preheat oven to 450F (220C)
Cut sour cream into biscuit mix, add 7-Up and butter. Makes a very soft dough.
Sprinkle additional biscuit mix on board or table and pat dough out. Makes about nine 3/4" high biscuits. Place cut biscuits in pan and bake for 12-15 minutes or until golden brown.

No Bisquick? Use this recipe for substitute:
2-1/2 cups all-purpose flour
2 tablespoons baking powder
1 tablespoon white sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup shortening

Thursday Brunch

2012-01-12T11:57:00.000-08:00

I had an interesting brunch after the gym today. Cindy had returned from Australia with a rather curious spice mix for bread and olive oils. It's called Dukkah (from Talinga Grove outside Melbourne) and has strong Middle Eastern flavours. I took one and a half rolls to dip them in olive oil and basalmic vinegar before dipping it into Dukkah. It has a very grainy crunch (conceivably from nuts) but there is definitley fennel and other fragrant herbs which makes this a winning dip.

To the only man I have ever loved

2012-01-05T21:03:00.000-08:00

Dearest Moses,

I celebrate your life today, all too brief but still as warm and as inspiring to me as I think of the life we once shared. Death was never meant to be gotten over but a prodding reminder that life is a gift from God. Fifteen years ago, you left rather unceremoniously. You had very little say in staying. I had no say about letting you go, but today I have something to say on this 5th of January 2012.

After all these years, when I think of your name, it's inevitable your laughter and the way your eyes linger over my face penetrate the fog of my memories. When I recall a particularly wonderful holiday, it was because you were holding my hand, or linking pinkies because your palms were often sweaty. If I had a sumptuous meal in any restaurant today, I would still compare it to The Nadaman in Shangri-La just because you had impressed me with a $100 meal eating oblong nibbles of sashimi, sipping thimblefuls of sake, and breathing expensive and rarefied atmosphere. I still kept the menu. Don't get me wrong, I haven't hermitted myself in a cave nor ceased to laugh raucously and ungirlishly in the company of friends since you left. I know that wouldn't have been how you wanted me to live. I guess I'm confessing in a way how very full you've made my life in the five short years we were married because I still feel connected to you in a way that defies explanation.

Wood is what married couples give to each other when they reach their 5th year wedding anniversary. Your wood had lasted me to the gift of china- which is a gift to celebrate 20 years. You are still a gift I thank God for. You wouldn't have thought that of yourself when you were alive that I was storing up every good gift you were giving me for these years of widowhood. You know you did that when you chose to write all those saccharine love letters to me during courtship and after marriage? I'm a sucker for romance and how quickly you had seen right through my steely facade and verbose exterior. I have reread your many concise letters and I've decided to write an article to encourage the art of writing letters as a memorial and testament to the endurance of your love. Love, when it is honestly expressed, truly lasts. For that, I thank you.

I will celebrate your life by purchasing a nice set of china to sip my Earl Gray from. A good man is not hard to find, but a man who had committed his life to love his God, wife and family extravagantly? You stand pitifully alone. I've learned so much about the power of leaving love notes that I left one this morning in Myron's lunch bag. I hope he understands that I love him justifiably with the love of two parents.

Always,
Shirl

Red mulled wine recipe

2011-12-27T10:56:00.000-08:00

Mix the following:

Spiced apple cider mix
1 cup of red merlot
1 stick of cinnamon
1 cup of iced lemon tea (mix is fine)
1 pomegranate
Lemon juice (optional)

Slow fire for about an hour

Add the pomegranate to cups before spooning hot mulled wine in teacups. Serve it before dinner as an aperitif.

My first Christmas Facial

2011-12-20T17:16:00.000-08:00

I’ve just had my first facial.

Goodness gracious. In your middish 40s! Yes, I did. I went into Azure Skin Care with a bucketful of hopium that what goes on this face will not come out red, botchy and bumpy. This was so undeniably “not-me”. I’m never lured by advertising (I was in advertising before so I know the shenanigans that go on behind closed boardroom doors), I am skittish with steaming open anything (billetdoux are fine, but least of all, one’s pores) and the cost of disambiguating the term “exfoliate” would be better served on someone who has thickish, leathery skin. An elephant leaps to mind.

I am not a gambling woman even though the first and last time I went into a Las Vegas casino I lost a quarter to a one-arm bandit only to gain $50 in dirty quarters. The reason why I found myself in Clayton Heights was because of my iPhone. It’s one of those things that seem to hit you at happier, more whimsical moments in your life when you decide a Groupon App is good for a chuckle. Then you click on it “just to see” and some startling discount catches your eye and the Christmas season coupled with no-homework-assignment completely pull all your No-More-Spending guards down. Before you know it…POOF! you have made an appointment and you are standing before a white-robed beautician.

So, there was Brittany- punctilious and professional. I was looking at my face doctor.

There’s something very soothing about having someone who looks nice work on one’s face. I’ll never get over the odd feeling that I’ve just met a stranger and the next minute I’m taking nearly all my clothes off. At least until down to the bottom half of my skivvies. I found out later that a bra strap is a horrible obstacle when one’s neck and shoulders are being massaged but I’m getting ahead of myself here…

It is mandatory that anyone in the aesthetics industry must be good at conversational fluff. The reason is because there are awkward long pauses that should be filled either by a) Classical (nothing Beethovanesque thank you very much) b) Barry Manilow instrumentals (surprisingly relaxing), c) some kind of shiatsu Japanesey bone-melting massage sursuration or d) intelligent confabulation.

Back to my face.

First the cleanser. I told Brittany that I came out with no makeup at all thinking I’d spare her having to wipe it all away again. I pulled a 404 on her. (completely clueless- File Not Found) Luckily for the cotton pads covering my eyes, I’m sure I couldn’t see her face showing mild mortification that a woman my age would dare step into the world without her face armour. Suffice to say, the cleanser came on and my face was just beginning to enjoy the effects of being treated like royalty.

I called the thing with the long arm connected to the bottled distilled water and minerals a Face Humidifier. It isn’t, of course, but that never stopped me from calling anything what I fancy. It steams open one’s pores causing the breathable craters (euphemistically called “large pores”) on my face to release every smidgen of toxin it has accumulated since blackheads and hormones were first introduced. It had a profound effect on my respiratory system as it was steaming open the alveoli sacs in the pit of my lungs giving it a tingly eucalypty fragrance. It might be the only time my lungs smelled this good.

Next were extractions. We all know about addition and subtractions but extractions are only to remove the debris (face gunk) from the capacious pores the same way I suppose one extracts juice from an orange. To spare you the details, I’ll just say it involved a healthy dose of squeezing.

Imagine me on my back, white flourescent magnifying every square millimeter of my face and Brittany doing a face map. For a scant nanosecond I felt like the earth being scoured over by the google camera to map out an accurate GPS of my features. It took a lot more vulnerability than I thought I had. It was a good thing Brittany was a fount of much aesthethical knowledge for she clued me in on what massage she was going to do, what booster she was going to apply, what masque she was going to paint on and finally, what moisturizer she was going to slather over my over-dehydated mug.

By the end of nearly 90 minutes, my face freshly toweled for the fifth time, moisturized and lovingly massaged emerged more youthful than ever. Alright, it didn’t obliterate the crows feet. I had told Brittany I had earned every single one of my wrinkles, barring the few that were caused by raising my teen. He caused most of the laugh lines, so I’ll close one eye for the worry wrinkles. The liver spots will need more than an exfoliation to rid. I don’t know why they call it a chemical peel because as a wordmonger, it screams “acid burn” to me.

I liked the way my face smelled at the end of the session. I liked the squeaky cleanliness of a rehydrated, remoisturized, post-extraction-of-blackheads-lurking-since-two-decades face. Sorry…TMI. Cucumbers on one’s eyelids are beneficial (officially Brittany- approved) to remove puffiness and one of the reasons for puffy eyelids is because one eats before sleeping. For those of you reading this entry and having an A-Ha moment, I’ll just wish you stronger disciplinary measures for yourself this Christmas.

Some people have facials once a month. It’s a complete luxury of course. I’m intrigued by this practice and am now certain which ones of my girlfriends go through this millennium old tradition of beautifying oneself. I probably can’t afford to go every month, but when spring comes around, I’ll go for round two with a girlfriend who’s got $60 sitting in her purse. Any takers?

Merry Christmas and a Notable New Year 2012!

2011-12-19T19:10:00.000-08:00

THE POWER OF PERSUASION

2011-11-21T15:47:00.000-08:00

POWER OF PERSUASION

Who said Christians don't have a sense of humour?

There was a feud between the Pastor and the Choir Director.

It seems the first hint of trouble came when the Pastor preached on "Dedicating oneself to Service" and the Choir Director chose to sing "I shall not be moved"

Trying to believe that it was a coincidence, the Pastor put the incident behind him. The next Sunday, he preached on "Giving". Afterwards, the Choir squirmed as the director led them in the hymn "Jesus Paid it All"

By this time, the Pastor was losing his temper and the Sunday morning attendance swelled as the tension between the two built up. A large crowd showed up the next week to hear his sermon on the "Sin of Gossiping". Would you believe it, the Choir Director selected "I love to tell the story"

There was no turning back. The following Sunday, the Pastor told the congregation that unless something changed, he was considering resignation. The entire Church gasped when the Choir Director led them in the song "Why not tonight?"

Truthfully, no one was surprised when the Pastor resigned a week later, explaining that "Jesus had led him there and Jesus was leading him away" The Choir Director could not resist and led them all in singing, "What a Friend we have in Jesus"

License to Trample

2011-11-20T17:25:00.000-08:00

Luke 10:18-19 He (Jesus) replied, “I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven. I have given you authority to trample on snakes and scorpions and to overcome all the power of the enemy; nothing will harm you."

These 2 verses tell me:

1. Satan fell like lightning. Lightning travels at 93,000 miles per second (according to the US Dept. of Energy) which is roughly equivalent to travelling around the earth's equator 4 times in one second. That's PDQ. Satan fell. (Thanks to all grammar classes, I recognize this as the past tense of "see".) Jesus saw him and that was at least a couple of millenia back.

2. A few milligrams of the venom from the Belcher's sea snake can kill 1000 men. The Death Stalker scorpion (let's not pussy foot around this) may not cause instant death but excruciating pain. O joy. But note...Jesus said "I have given you authority..." Past perfect tense. Given out and not retracted.

Today I pit my very worst current battle against the very cornerstone of my belief centred upon these verses. I am not the type that goes out looking for trouble, (so I won't be packing to Australia or Africa to look for snakes and scorpions to stamp on any time soon) but today, this passage struck me in a different way. Jesus had sent his 72 disciples out two-by-two to preach the Good News. And when you go out on the mission that He sends you out on, you are going to meet with snakes and scorpions and other creepy crawlies. Sure, you weren't going out to look for them, but they will be found along the way. Hang on a second...here's the juggernaut...depend on the certainty that God gave you the authority to overcome the enemy (creepy crawlies, poisonous crunchy beetles and slithery belly-dancing vipers, satan's minions) who likes nothing better than for you not to deliver the Good News.

I know some of us are going through whatever is equivalent to a scorpion's spiritual bite, so I'm praying for you based on the realization that God has given you to me and I'm trusting God to see that His Authority working not just on Top Secret level three FBI security clearance but Willy-Wonka Golden Ticket kinda clearance! I am writing specifically to each one of you to tell you that God has you on His mind and I'm praying alongside you.

We are so incredibly well-made to trample on dubious poisonous creatures that try to beset us, but let's not fall prey to that. We have been given the license to trample. Let that soak in for a bit. I don't know about you, but while I am trampling, I'm going to add a bit of a shake, twist and swivel just to get that sucker good.

Clauses

2011-11-14T17:50:00.000-08:00

Clauses have a subject and verb.

Clauses are either Independent or Dependent.

Example:
Keiko ate the seeds that we bought for her last week.

The subject: Keiko (Our pet cockatiel)
Predicate: ate the seeds that we bought for her last week.

Our predicate has 2 verbs: ate and bought
Clause 1: Keiko ate the seeds.
Clause 2: That we bought for her last week

Clause 1 can stand alone, so it's an independent clause.
Clause 2 needs to be attached to the first clause to make sense so that's called a dependent clause (or Subordinate clause) usually by a relative pronoun (that, which, who) or a linking conjunction or connective adverb like after, although, as, because, before, if, since, unless, until, when, while, so that...

Dependent Clauses (Subordinate Clauses)
Has different functions:
1. Act as an adjective (Adjective describes or modifies a noun)
2. Act as nouns
3. Act as adverbs

1. As an adjective: Example: The painting, which was a priceless piece of artwork, was stolen from the museum. (which was a priceless piece of artwork modifies the painting) Rule for Adjective Clauses: Usually right after the noun.
2. As a noun: I can't understand what she said. (what she said is the object of understand) Rule for Noun Clauses: Generally goes after a verb and can be introduced by that, what, which, who, whom, where, when, whoever, whatever
3. As an adverb: I felt horrible when I found out Keiko died from seed poisoning! (when I found out Keiko died from seed poisoning! modifies the verb "felt; it tells when I felt horrible) Rule for Adverb Clauses: Usually before or right after the independent clause and tend to explain time, manner, purpose, cause, result, effect, concession or contrast

Prepositions are usually at the end of the clause:
This is the part of Grammar which we are most frustrated with.
This is the part of the test which Paul is most anxious about.

Shirlz Sound Bites (November 2011)

2011-11-10T23:04:00.000-08:00

What determination will help you do...

2011-11-07T08:50:00.000-08:00

Here is a 1 minute video I recorded to remind me what I had set out to accomplish 10 months ago.

I had written: "What determination will help you accomplish if you don't give up." - Shirley, a right hander

Nolstagia

2011-11-06T15:52:00.000-08:00

I remember
Those days when I sat on the window ledge
And dreamt.
I wish I was far away
So that nothing could distract the castles I built.
Now that that window ledge is no longer there
And it's but a memory of my childhood,
I long to find
A substitute.
But there is none that could be
My little standing space
to see
Through the window of my bedroom
With the eyes of a child
Who only wished to be
Far away.

Entry: 8 February 1988, Pasadena, California

Hot-spotting connections

2011-10-13T11:59:00.000-07:00

So there I was in Tim Hortons, looking through my courses online and doing student-like things such as getting on top of homework and posting my thoughts to my Linguistic' class forum.

It doesn't happen often but when a stranger comes over and says "Hello Shirley, how are you?", I confess every antennae is sweeping the entire perimeter for bugs, spies and secret service agents. (Why would they be spying on me I 'll never know!) I am not a person easily surprised but this is where you insert the emoticon of a wide-eyed, I-just-got-found-out, scared-witless face. But there was something about his face that said "friend" instead of "foe".

I asked how he knew my name. He said he had hacked into my account (my nerves went into bungee-jumping beserk mode again!) then he smiled and said "Shirley's iPhone4" since I was hot-spotting from iPhone to my my laptop. He lifted up his iPhone and his iPad. His companion, an elderly man smiled. His name is Stephen and he introduced his friend Alf, from Queensland, Australia. What ensued was a rather delightful conversation (about work, ministry, Power to Change, ESL and churches) all because he saw my electronic "ad" for a hotspot connection. (Note to self: Should I put my name on the iPhone so everyone knows my name? Hmmm...)

This short dialogue made me think how many ways can one find out about others and how easy was it to have a conversation? After answering his question about what I do for a living, I took a risk by using my observations to suss out who he was. I said he has a demeanor of a pastor to which he looked at me with new eyes. *That's* the look that I get when I use my eyes, ears and heart to look at someone. Tit for tat. He said he was "an evangelist" and we went on to talk about our church backgrounds and even found out we had a mutual friend from a Chinese church by the name of Gideon.

Before I left for class, he said that he knew when he saw me working on my sausage-country-biscuit-and-hot-chocolate, that I was a Christian. Let me be shallow and admit that I was rather suspicious of such a line however, he clarified by saying that Christians are known by the Spirit who lives within them. It made me think and it brought part of a Sunday school song back to mind.

"And they'll know we are Christians by our love..."

Understanding Teaching Methodology

2011-10-03T16:27:00.000-07:00

Traditional learning (1000+ years ago)

Meta-Orientation: Transmission

Curriculum: Product

Student: Receive info

Teacher: Found of knowledge (full control)

Language: Structures

Assessment: Scientific

I went to one of the most straight-laced, academic, Government-subsidized high schools in Singapore, so the traditionalist’s way of rote learning was all I had ever known. Back in the mid 80s, one’s learning was measured by what output you could regurgitate during the formidable Cambridge U.K. ‘O’-level exams when you were 16 years old. Every teacher would stand before a class of 40 to deliver instruction so to ensure our best chances to get distinctions was to learn how to write exams. It worked for many as my alma mater has kept its reputation for having the highest numbers of alumni who are CEOs, ministers, scientists, engineers and doctors today. This has been a great disservice for I had not learned for learning’s sake but for the elusive grades I hoped would direct my career path. I believe this style will serve those better in Science and Math (much less leeway for creative thinking) than Arts, which was what I had chosen.

Learner-driven (Present)

Meta-Orientation: Transaction

Curriculum: Process

Student: Choses info

Teacher: Facilitator

Language: Negotiated

Assessment: Performance

My son is 16 years old and now goes to a private Christian High School. The way his school conducts lessons is certainly more learner-driven than anything I had been exposed to. There is more room for dialogue and for negotiating course projects. I’ve also had the privilege of staying closer in contact with the teachers as well as keeping abreast of his curriculum, performance and problematic areas. My son has been blessed with wonderful musical talents, playing several instruments and having an ear for music notation, editing and producing. His strong leanings towards both Design Arts and Music production would most definitely be stymied under the old, traditional regime. He chose to take more Media-arts classes this year in Grade 11 which I believe will help chart a course he’s willing and more prepared to follow.

Critical (Present implementation in some Universities)

Meta-Orientation: Transformation

Curriculum: Praxis (Affecting the world)

Student: Apply info

Teacher: Guide (Interpreter)

Language: Power (gives student power to transform)

Assessment: Portfolios (see visible changes)

Of all three meta-orientations, my favourite has to be the critical approach. I find this most relevant in my role as mum to my son. Having been widowed for 14 years, my role as single parent is only rewarding now when I play ‘coach’ (instead of teacher) in his phase of seeking self-identity and purpose in life. We have experienced a great deal of disagreements, conflicts in our interpretations of issues and heated debates over countless numbers of topics the past 2 years. We may exert our differences with the strongest statements if only to do so kindly. I have found that the best way empower him is to relinquish my prior control/ influence over his personal choices so that he takes the full responsibility of his decision. Nothing is more wrestle-worthy than seeing my personal convictions and deep transformations whether it be by my active sharing or my passive showing. With this approach, the biggest advantage is both student and teacher benefits mutually from seeing each other’s inward process of challenge and outward product of change.

Napkin Notes #5: The art of seeing past the man in order to observe the person

2011-08-30T23:23:00.000-07:00

“The way to love anything is to realize that it may be lost.” – Gilbert K. Chesterton

I’m intrigued about people. I’ve always been. When I get to know someone, it borders on being slightly intrusive while maintaining a veneer of voracious curiosity. People compel me. They can be distracting, befuddling, irresistible, cantankerous, discursive or polemic. There’s always something exacting about someone and I’ve learned to discover lots about a person from the best gumshoe who never lived- Sherlock Holmes.

Sherlock Holmes was created in Beeton’s Christmas Annual in 1887. One of the riveting things about Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s remarkable protagonist must be the fact that he was based on an actual person–Dr. Joseph Bell, who was Doyle’s old teacher when he was still in Medical School. A short excerpt from A Scandal in Bohemia will illustrate what I have come to love about people-watching.

Holmes: “…You see, but you do not observe. The distinction is clear. For example, you have frequently seen the steps which lead up to this room.”
Dr. Watson: “Frequently.”
Holmes: “How often?”
Dr. Watson: “Well, some hundreds of times.”
Holmes: “Then how many are there?”
Dr. Watson: “How many! I don’t know.”
Holmes: “Quite so! You have not observed. And yet you have seen.”

We see people everywhere but we seldom observe. The homeless are arguably some of the most invisible members in society. If I had to ask myself why, perhaps it might have to do with feeling uneasy (Oh uh, he’s going to ask me for money!) mixed with self-righteousness (Well, why isn’t he working like everyone else?), a tiny bit of sympathy (How long has he not eaten?) and a whole carking stockpot of quasi-guilt-slash-helplessness (Well, God, what do you expect me to do, give him money so he’ll get more liquor? Drugs?!) The above palaver was brought to you by a weak generalization of such stereo-types in our society. I too, stand convicted and guilty. I see homeless people but I don’t know how to, or dare approach someone because I don’t know what he or she may need specifically from me.

“Don’t just pretend to love others. Really love them. Hate what is wrong. Hold tightly to what is good. Love each other with genuine affection,and take delight in honoring each other.” -Romans 12:9-10

One evening while entering a noshery for dinner, I couldn’t have missed seeing Daniel (not his real name) sitting by the front door. If I had, I’m quite sure I would’ve tripped over him, and hurled myself headlong into the fengshui fishtank neatly placed in my flight path. There was something about Daniel that betrayed his grimy exterior that nagged at me throughout my meal. I felt as if God was compelling me to take note of something truly important and if I don’t stop to understand this person, I was going to miss a valuable lesson.

There was a person not-so-hidden behind the man.
In the twenty minutes I took to listen to Daniel’s story, I observed two different persons emerge. Daniel was injured while at work in a construction site, whose life unravelled when he could not work, who didn’t blame his wife taking their young son away because he was suffering from depression followed by alcoholism and other –isms which hastened his crow-on-a-wire look and lifestyle.
The skeptical woman in me warned not to be taken in by his sob story. I wasn’t sure how to react to what he was telling me, so I simply asked God to show me what he needed, despite the obvious and the not-so obvious. As Daniel talked, I listened and as I looked, truly looked, (which meant sitting on the floor with him) some things became quite evident.

He wore his hair neatly, even though it was long.
He wrote his name on his clothes, his duffel bag and on the few belongings he had.
He kept pulling back his shoulder periodically and held his stomach in a painful way several times as he spoke.
He had curried stains on his tee-shirt and a brown paper bag of what smelled like curry beside him.
When I asked if I could pray for him, I took a small leap of faith to pray for the things I thought he needed.

1. I thanked the Lord for him, and that by his own admission, God loves him and still has a good plan for his life. Praise God he had remained sober the last two months.
2. I said his name several times and prayed for his wife and son by name.
3. I laid my hands on where I felt he hurt most and prayed for his injuries to heal including what I believed was an upset stomach.
Immediately, Daniel told me about the curry a family had left for him the night before but he had gotten a stomach ache from it. From where I stood, it reeked from not being refrigerated. I ended our time together by handing him my uneaten spring rolls (and chucking the rancid curry). He accepted it but what did Daniel need specifically from me? The last thing he thanked me for was calling out his name. He had forgotten when the last time was someone called him by his name.
The first person who emerged changed was Daniel. The second person to come away changed was me. God sees Daniel and He simply wanted me to see his son as precious, someone who needed to be loved and honoured.

“Here is my secret. It is very simple. It is only with the heart that one can see rightly; what is essential is invisible to the eye.” – Antoine St. Exupery, Le Petit Prince

Earlier this year I chanced to watch a movie called “Happy-Go-Lucky.” I like Mike Leigh’s Aesopian-type films, always insightful, polymorphous and chock-a-block full of real human sentiments. (Secrets and lies, Vera Drake, to name a couple. ) The story revolves around Pauline “Poppy” Cross, played by a nonplussed Sally Hawkins as an irenic 30- year old woman who sees the good in every person. One powerful scene that stood out for me was Poppy having a conversation with a batty homeless man in London, yaffing about “the rubber knocker man, she’s she’s she’s, she’s, ya know what I mean?” He definitely has a dozen bats in the belfry, but there’s a heartbeat of understanding from her, and she looks him in the eye and sincerely says, “Yeah, I do.”
All the punch from that scene was delivered in those three words where she simply connects with him before he goes off muttering to himself again. Sure it’s celluloid quirkiness at Mike Leigh’s braggable Golden Globe-winning best, but what the scene conveyed to me was how it impacted her.
Our hearts are fragile and myopic. Only when we focus outwardly to risk loving others will we be able to turn inward to see ourselves clearly in God’s grand scheme of things. God loves us whether we are tinker, tailor, soldier, sailor, rich man, poor man, beggar man or mad man.

“Jesus saw the huge crowd as he stepped from the boat, and he had compassion on them because they were like sheep without a shepherd. So he began teaching them many things.” – Mark 6:34

We are lost. Essentially, that’s how Jesus sees us. We are like a sheep without a shepherd. The lost cannot lead the way. Someone who knows the way must teach it and teach it, Jesus does, because His compassion drives him to love.

This month, as an act of love and healthy people-watching curiosity: Let’s observe our friends, our family; what they wear, what they talk about, what music they are listening to, how they react to things, to us and have a ball of a time deducing their unsaid (and often unmet) needs and offer to pray with them.

The Last Fresh Fish July 2011

2011-07-03T22:53:00.001-07:00

Napkin Notes #4: Summer Fêtes> Unposh nosh easy on your dosh

2011-06-26T22:59:00.000-07:00

I cook five days a week; six, if I am entertaining on the weekend. Improvement is the necessary incentive to keep both meals interesting and I, interested in cooking.
I am a firm believer in good book-lending practices so I frequent the library twice a week. Anyone who’s ever been in my home will tell you I cook by sight–foodography is a kind of stomach pornography to me. To entice the senses, the best cookbooks are easily 95 percent big glossy prints and 5 percent instruction. I tend to think verbose chefs lose their audience unless they’re on tele and actually have something instructive to say. Take Michael Ruhlman’s The Elements of Cooking. Not a photo in 245 pages of circumlocution. I would have had more stamina to sit through a year’s subscription of Opera News than read that. Well, maybe not a year’s subscription. Maybe two months.

Remember Chairman Kaga–the original host of Iron Chef, Japan? Darting eyes, flaring nostrils, and frilled cuffs (with Bill Bickard’s campy English voice-over)? How the knob did that series survive 2,000 dishes? Oh yes, it was because of the droolicious rations that whet your stomach juices into industrial strength pressurized jet sprays when the cameras linger on the finished dish. It doesn’t matter if the secret ingredient was cabbage or potatoes; they looked like they would cost $300 more than the actual cost of the ingredients. I suppose that’s what happens when you ply on the foie gras or bedaub everything with caviar. So much of what we eat begins with our hungry eyes, noses, mouths and stomachs.

So, after surveying the Surrey Library shelves for the glossiest spine that will preface some cuisine whose ingredients are not beyond Canadian grocers, but not finding any, I decided locally gotten fresh ingredients are the panacea for all guests with a persnickety palate. I turned to the pages of my 1994 travelogue lunch notes in the old quarters of Nice to one of the simplest fares my tastebuds had ever had the presence of mind (if tastebuds did such a thing) to enjoy and recall. There was the least fancy dish called socca which I had mistakenly believed was made of cornmeal when it was made with chickpeas. We also had Farcies a L’assiette (“farcies,” meaning stuffed; hence stuffed tomatoes, stuffed zucchinis, stuffed onions) and moules-frites (mussels and fries).
I coined a new word that day – “Delumptuous” to mark a meal that was good and fresh and simple. Everything we farcied into our faces was delicious and sumptuous.

These bygone memories make up my kitchen homilies. The most successful parties, in my humble but accurate estimation, only have two outcomes:
1. People know they are loved.
2. People want to come back.

It’s summer and I’ve a Throw-down à la Bobbeh Flay for you. Find your foodict friend who squeals like a Billy-o when you hint you’re having a delumptuous party for five using only five ingredients from the farmer’s market within 5km of your home. (I’m making this stuff up as I go along …)
Strawberries are in season in Surrey, BC where I live, as are summer squash, kale, basil and thyme. Nothing has to be fancy nor expensive and sit-down meals are entirely overrated. One need not be careless about liquor if the host’s intention is to compliment the dinner and not catastrophize it. Crushed fresh strawberries with a splosh of wine cooler is a refreshing winner when you garnish it with basil mint and flowered chives. I grow these in my backyard because they’re hardy as mahogany.

It’s mind ba-lowing what anyone can get away with when the food is tasty and the company connects well with each other. I’ve also gotten away with food piled high and pan drippings resemble a Rorschach gravy blot of two people dancing. It’s lovely when the biggest headache your guests winge about is whether to have more quiche lorraine or kale with walnuts? That’s a champagne problem: having to choose between two ideals.

Questions for your guests to make the fête funnily memorable:
Make a list of things you don’t know. (If you are like me, I would suggest a less comprehensive list of 20.) Give your guests your problems. Here are some of mine:
1. Why do we need a turkey baster when it’s impossible to clean and what’s wrong with using a big ole spoon?
2. Why do clothing manufacturers sew their labels in such an uncomfortable place?
3. How do you tell someone with very bad breadth, that?
4. How do you think they make clothing out of banana or bamboo fibres?
5. How do you tell the person who can talk the hind leg off a donkey, that he/she talks too much?

Bring weird/wonderful kitchen doodads and ask them what else they can be used for. See #1 above.

Value-add your evening soirée by giving them tips. My suggestion is make them ALL up. It helps to put some Unhelpful tips in with the mix too. My favourite? Chew gum right after you’ve eaten seeds or nuts to clean the grit lodged in your teeth.

Introduce your friends to dubstep; if they fail to appreciate that, play Kajagoogoo, Howard Jones, David Bowie, AHA or anything from the 80s.

Remember, anyone can throw a successful party when pigs fly. And we all know, pigs fly when they have enough love and thrust!!

April Fresh Fish 2011

2011-04-30T23:04:00.000-07:00

Last Sunday Napkin Notes for SheLovesMagazine

2011-04-30T21:32:00.000-07:00

Napkin Notes: How to say “No”.

On shaving blind, self-respecting “nos” and reading tell-tale parenthesis

Six months in the gym and I get 8 calluses, 2 reddened bunions and not too many visible signs I had actually rowed, biked, and tread-milled. (Unless one counts the uploaded photos of a certain mileage counter on FaceBook.) Sometimes all the hard work can only be seen in the subcutaneous layers on a molecular level too biological to go into without experiencing the heebie-jeebies. While at the gym one day, I wend past all the heavy-duty ironman equipment to try the bench press. There are steel donuts of all sizes and a young muscular man sidles over to offer help. Now, I’m no weakling (I’m no Irene Andersen either…) but when he asked if I needed help, I said “yes”. He locked and loaded the scrawniest 5 kg on either side. It behooved me to internalize the universal question: “Why is it so difficult to say no?”

I say “no” as frequently as I take afternoon showers. This reminds me of something quite untoward as I had my second 3pm ablution this year. I never shower with my glasses on, a bit of information that does nothing but inform you reader, other that I’m quite blind while reaching for sharp instruments, like a razor. Can we say “hematophobia” (Fear of bleeding)? No, because it’s not a real word, but it has never stopped me from using it indiscriminately. It’s a matter of time before it circulates to an unfamiliar boondock in Australia where a word-embracing tautologist will use it in a blog and voila!- instant acceptance in the slanguist’s dictionary.

Not forgetting my point at the beginning of this sentence, (Call me “meanderthal”)- it’s fairly difficult for many of us to say “no”, mean “no” and follow through with a clearly defined, absolute irrevocable- “no way”, “not happening”, “the opposite of yes.” I find this a particularly female-prone malady, do you?

Take another example my little naughty excursion to dessert last night at Sammy J. Peppers with my womanpal. Now most women would read between the lines (or skim around my parenthesized thoughts). This is going to come to a complete, utter, no-win, sorry, self-deprecating end. A chocolate mousse cheesecake by any other name is sweet re-toxification! The internal commentary went like this:

I’ve just had Rack of Lamb Paidakia. I’m stuffed!

I still have some space in my stomach.

We said we would be done at 930pm and it’s 930pm!

I hadn’t had dessert for a long time; I can afford this.

I brought this home to my 16-year old son Myron who sliced through the fog of my bimbling like a hot knife through herbed butter.

“Mum, you really don’t know yourself and you care too much about looking like a good person.” Ouch. Trust a tweenager to deliver the coup-de-grace with a sledgehammer. As I said before, I’m no weakling (especially in the verbal jousting department), so I pressed for clarification. He made several poignant and brief points that only a tight-lipped, 16-year old of the male species can. His observations:

1. Think with your brain, not with your stomach. (we can also think with other organs but that’s another blog entry) If you look at my internal dialogue again, it’s brain-stomach-brain-stomach.

2. It’s about knowing yourself.

3. It’s about respecting a person’s choices.

I found our little jaw-jaw most enlightening. The fact that I feel more obliged to preserve harmony at the expense of internalizing guilt and regret is a viciously debilitating thing. A dim 15-watt slowly got replaced with the Cree TrueWhite light bulb and it made an impact in my brain the same way the chocolate mousse fell to the pit of my stomach with a dullish thud. Strangely enough, it brought to memory the lasting words from Polonius to his son Laertes in Shakespeare’s play Hamlet.

“This above all: to thine own self be true,

And it must follow, as the night the day,

Thou canst not then be false to any man.”

By "true" he means loyal to your own best interests and by "false", disadvantageous or detrimental to your image; so, cut to the chase and put this down on my chocolate-smeared napkin before I lose the plot: which makes perfect sense when one begins to respect and know one has the God-given freedom to choose; one would inevitably respect that someone else also has the same. Next time you have to say no, if it’s in your best interest to say “no”, then by golly, that’s all the valid reason you need have in order to say it.

As the old adage goes, it’s not what you say, it’s how you say it. So remember to smile, and with a gentle tilt of your head, deliver your most deliberate and firm, “no”. Give it a go. I’m fairly certain you will be able to comment here, and live another day to tell someone else the liberating, self-respecting, non-offensive way to say what you mean and mean what you say.

March Fresh Fish 2011

2011-03-31T11:53:00.000-07:00

Changes

2011-03-06T17:04:00.001-08:00

Change does not seek my consent, nor does it challenge me. I have to get to that place where I understand change is not what I have to submit to. Change is either something I embrace or something I run from.

The reason why I am living in Canada right now has to do with one small incident on 18 February 1982. While serving the Singapore Air Forces, my older brother Sam was involved in a freak accident where he perished along with 3 other national servicemen. This led to an undisclosed amount of what my father called "dirty money" collected from the insurance company which was spent sending me to the US to study. After my studies, instead of going to Chicago for my dream job in Leo Burnett, my mother insisted I return home where I spent the best and last 2 years of her life being her best friend before she succumbed to colon cancer. While home in SGP, I met and married my husband, who excelled in Product Design and planted the wonderful notion to go to Switzerland for 3+ years. Eventually it led to my birthing our son before watching my husband lose the battle to lung cancer. Returning to the US go get away from the depression of seeing my husband's shadow in every restaurant we had visited, I chanced to meet an old friend who invited me to revisit Vancouver. Before you can say “unpack”, I’ve arrived in Canada and have since lodged here for 10 years 11 months and 6 days. I’ve not measured these occurrences according to its size of change for me, but I’ve measured them in whether I’ve 1. Embraced them or 2. Rejected them. Where I have embraced changes, I’ve lived a happier life. Where I have denied or resented those changes, I’ve wallowed in personal and prolonged grief. Not a good thing, I assure you.

Whether or not one chooses to believe in a higher power, as humans, change is inevitable. I’ve learned not to struggle as changes come, but to ask what it requires of me? What lessons are waiting to be learned? I personally believe that in my relationship with Jesus comes a benefit unparalleled and unsurpassed. I don’t care for the changes that come, but I do care for His companionship through the new and ever-foreign landscapes of my life. It is in those powerful moments of living with God at the frayed edges of my sometime insane and inscrutable life, that makes change ever so welcoming. It’s the front row seat of seeing Jesus reveal most about Himself and also about my growing understanding of me in Him.

Change is not the most fearful thing in my life. My greatest fear is going through life without God making it all worth my salt while earth-bound. And Jesus put to eternal rest, that doubt and nauseating fear, that I would never go through this life or any other life, alone.

Epicurious Scotch Eggs

2011-03-06T11:32:00.000-08:00

It's been some time since I last put a recipe here that's worth sharing. I came across this word "epicurean" and of course we all know that it means a person devoted to sensual enjoyment, esp. that derived from fine food and drink. I love words and would eat a new word heartily every morning if possible. I decided to make a dish I seem to recall having eaten (scotch eggs) when I visited England donkey years ago.

According to Wikipedia (I've no reason to doubt them here), scotch eggs were first sold in Fortnum & Mason in London in 1738. It was on no account because it was Scottish or even remotely Scot-like. It's as English as scones and Devonshire cream. The word "Scotch" is a throwback to the archaic word "scotched" which means "encased" or "wedged with". I'm terribly curious about most things remotely food related so here's another new word to add to your Foodictionary. Epicurious (I'm curious in epic proportions) about food in general. While some people are foodies, I am, however, a foodie who enjoys cooking for the eaties.

Ingredients:
5 large hard boiled eggs
400gm Italian sausage meat
Flour
1 beaten egg
Fine breadcrumbs
Oil for deep frying

Take Italian sausage meat to wrap around the boiled egg. Roll it in flour. Dip it in beat egg wash. Roll it in fine breadcrumbs. Gently deep fry for 10 min on med low.
This makes an excellent picnic with pickles or sweet onions on its side.

February Fresh Fish 2011

2011-02-28T14:28:00.000-08:00

January Fresh Fish 2011

2011-01-30T17:47:00.000-08:00

Salmon Pot Pie chowder for Christmas Dinner

2010-12-27T08:56:00.000-08:00

Ingredients for the chowder:
4 fillets of salmon cut into bite-sized chunks
1 shot of white wine
1 small onion
Cooked potatoes (diced)
Steamed carrots, peas, corn (bought frozen)
250ml sour cream
Half a can of Campbell mushroom
Pinch of dried dill
Pinch of salt
Freshly ground pepper

1 packet of frozen puff pastry
Makes 4 individual pot pies

Sweat onion in a tbsp oil before adding in salmon pieces. Shake in the dry dill and add the white wine. Add cooked potatoes, vegetables and stir fry for about 3 mins. Add the can of Campbell mushroom and chase it with sour cream. Do not overcook the fish. Place in individual dishes.

Roll out the puff pastry dough on a floured surface and stretch it over the dish. Place in an already hot oven at 200C for 30 mins.

Eat!!

Fresh Fish December 2010

2010-12-15T15:50:00.000-08:00

Merry Christmas 2010!

2010-12-10T12:01:00.001-08:00

How to apply your Visa to Heaven/ Sharing with youth at JHC

2010-11-30T12:18:00.000-08:00

I’m so pleased to be here and honoured that I may come to be a part of this. This week, I was on iTunes and I bought 2 songs that I can blast while I’m at the gym. I just love the beat. Let’s see how many of you recognize the lyrics…

Here we go, come with me;
There's a world out there that we should see;
Take my hand close your eyes,
With you right here I'm a rocketeer,
Let's fly... – Far East Movement, Rocketeer

When people meet me, one of the first questions I get asked is “where are you from?” I’ve lived in many countries and have traveled to many different places, so I’m often tempted to say “I’m from this planet” because home is more than one place to me. However, when pressed for an answer to why I speak the way I do, I say I was born in Singapore which used to be a colony under British rule for 123 years. So I am the fortunate holder of two different passports.

Objects: Singapore Passport/ Canadian Passport

How many of you have a passport? You don’t really need one if you plan to stay in Canada the rest of your life, but if you want to travel, you’re going to need one. Tonight, we’re all travelers from some place going to some place else…We’re all on a journey, and tonight, I’d like to rocketeer us into the world out there for 20 mins.

Who was born in Canada? What does it mean to be a citizen of Canada? It means you have full rights to all the benefits of living and enjoying all that Canada has to offer. It also means you will need to abide by and follow through with the laws of this country.

If you have your Canadian passport at home, go home and take a look at page 4 because there’s this interesting section that has to be filled out: It says

“Bearer’s Permanent Address” and “In case of accident or death, please notify”.

Now if you spend any time with me, you’ll find out quickly that I am a very rational, highly practical person, I am a bit of a skeptic and I ask a lot of questions. But it is in asking really good, hard questions, that I’ve gotten really good answers in my life.

Page 4 of my passport made me ask two questions:

1. Where is my permanent residence?
2. In case of death, where am I going to? Heaven or that other place no one wants to talk about?

I have moved 14 times the last 23 years. I’ve concluded that my permanent residence is actually very temporary. What I really want to ask is this: In case of death, how do I make sure my permanent residence is in heaven? Maybe the question is: Is there a heaven?

To answer that question, I’ve got to use this!

Object: Mapbook to Europe

No heaven is not via Europe. Bear with me…When my husband and I lived in Switzerland, we had to apply for a visa to visit France. We drove from our tiny city of La Tour-de-Peilz in our dinky little car all the way to the South of France using this to navigate our way.

When we finally arrived in the outskirts of Nice after what must have been a 10 hour drive (my husband never learned how to drive), I was exhausted and lost and wanted nothing more than to find our hostel. So being the woman driver, I asked Monsieur Gas-pump-attendant who would surely know the way. He gave me the clearest general directions possible.

Tournez a gauche pour 2 minutes,
et puis continuez a droit at the fountain,
et ensuite toute droit passé le marche and le voila! Youth Hostel!
A piece of cake!

After 20 minutes of going around 3 fountains, and two exits, and I don’t know how many supermarkets, I decided we’ve got to ask somebody else. So we stopped at the grocers and asked Mademoiselle. This time we got names of roads as well as directions! However this didn’t seem very helpful when it started to get dark and I was getting hungry and my husband couldn’t quite follow names of roads like

Avenue Villemont, Rue Diderot, and Rue de la Liberte…it was all very unliberating!

Finally, I stopped a gang of foreigners who gave me the best direction possible. You see, they had just come from the same hostel we were going to, and one of them decided to get into our car and personally show us the way.

I learned this important lesson that day:
The clearest direction comes from someone from the hostel and was committed enough to come along for the ride to show us how to get there.

Now I’m aware it’s a hostel, not Heaven, but here’s the logic of the enquiry. Is there someone who is from Heaven who could show me the way. So I checked. Buddha, Guru Nanak, Mohammad, Confucius, no religious leaders of any lasting reputation said they came from Heaven, let alone show me the way. All except one.

Jesus made this outlandish claim in the book of John in the Bible 6:38 38 For I have come down from heaven not to do my will but to do the will of him who sent me.” Then further on in the same book He says, “My Father’s house has many rooms; if that were not so, would I have told you that I am going there to prepare a place for you? 3 And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am…I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.”

I remember thinking that’s rather pompous, isn’t it? No one goes to God but through him! Who does Jesus think He is? When I was younger, I thought he was some Jewish man who lived 2000 years ago who spoke in a language that nobody speaks now. I am a Chinese woman, born in Singapore, educated in the States and I don’t even read Hebrew, or eat baba ganoush. We’re from two different cultures! Why couldn’t God have come as a Chinese man, spewing Cantonese or Mandarin and eating dumplings with chopsticks? I had thought God was very narrow minded to come as a Jew.

And then I thought -Would it be any easier to believe he came from Heaven if he came as a Chinese man? Then a light bulb went off in my head: The question was not why did he come as a Jewish man, but why did he come at all?

It seems Mr. Bruno Mars knows because he sang it in his song Grenade:

Gave you all I had
And you tossed it in the trash
You tossed it in the trash, you did
To give me all your love is all I ever asked, Cause what you don't understand is
I’d catch a grenade for ya
Throw my hand on a blade for ya
I’d jump in front of a train for ya
You know I'd do anything for ya
I would go through all this pain, Take a bullet straight through my brain,
Yes, I would die for ya baby ; But you won't do the same

Why would anybody go through dismemberment, mutilation, and death?
One word: Love. You wouldn’t do it for anything less.

What are you willing to lose for the one you love? There’s a cost to everything. Did you know that your body parts can be insured for different amounts? Last year, one of the biggest insurance companies in America stated a quarter of a million dollar policy would pay you the cost of losing:
• One hand, ear, or foot: $125,000
• One hand or foot plus the sight in one eye: $250,000
• Thumb and index finger: $62,500
I mean, would you throw your hand on a blade for me if I paid you $125,000? You wouldn’t. Honest, you wouldn’t. You wouldn’t do it for any other reason other than love. The truest love is sacrificial, not a monetary transaction. I don’t think it’s so far-fetched to think that God is conversant in this global language that you and I understand- Love.

This is how the Bible puts it:
“For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him, shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son (from Heaven) into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.”

Erwin McManus wrote in his book Soul Cravings, “This is the story of God: He pursues you with his love and you have perhaps not said yes. And even if you reject his love, he pursues you ever still. It was not enough to send an angel or a prophet or any other, for in issues of love, you must go yourself. And so God has come. This is the story of Jesus, that God walked among us and he pursues us with his love.”

So this is what I’ve got so far:
One. Jesus came from Heaven. Who does he say he is? God.
Two. He promised to take us to be with Him. Three, He came because He loved the people in the world and He showed it in a way that everybody can understand.

But come now Shirley, you haven’t answered the question:

In case of death, how do I make sure my permanent residence is in heaven? To help explain this better, let me share this with you. This is my

Object: Record of Landing in Canada Document

In order to land legally with my son in Canada, I was given a Record of Landing on 26 April 2000. It is an official document signed and dated and approved. It’s similar to what you are being handed right now, but let me walk you through it. What you have is a Visa Application to Heaven.

I thought this would be appropriate for all of us because a passport to Christmas is really about starting a relationship with God, and applying for visa to Heaven.

What does it mean to be a citizen of Heaven? It means you have full rights to all the benefits of living and enjoying all that Heaven has to offer.

Object: Visa to Heaven (Click on image to enlarge)

The good news is in the Pre-payment section: Jesus paid the price of our death for dying on our behalf. On the cross. It is an exchange: His death for our death. His resurrected life for our eternal life.

What’s important on this Visa is that His signature, Jesus’ name is on this document as the Chief Immigrant Officer.

But what is most important is the decision of the applicant. This is a personal choice that you make. If this expresses the desire of your heart, then I’d like you to bow your heads and say the prayer with me.

"Lord Jesus, thank you for loving me enough to come to Earth to
show me that I matter to you. Thank you that it is a free gift to me
but it cost you your life to find my way back to God. I want to
know you as the way, the truth and the life. Please help me to
make you both savior and Lord of my life. In Jesus’ name, amen."

This is no secret forumla. God is interested in your heart's intent, expressed in the sincerity of your words (or what I'd like to call prayer.) If you said that prayer, you can look forward to some of the benefits you will experience when you go to Heaven. Wouldn’t you like to know what Heaven is like? I would!

If you asked Jesus to come into your life as your first step to believing His love for you is real, I want to welcome you in as a successful applicant to heaven. You can sign right there.

I started my talk tonight with people often asking me “Where are you from?” But I want to conclude tonight’s sharing with the much more important “Where are you going?” Jesus came so that you may have life to the full, and He didn’t mean for that full life to ever end. When you think of Christmas, let me leave you with the words of CS Lewis.

"Aim at heaven you will get earth thrown in. Aim at earth and you get neither." May the joy of receiving Jesus keep you satisfied in this life and onto the next.

Bon Voyage and I hope we fly the same skies!

November Fresh Fish

2010-11-29T11:48:00.000-08:00

Oat Crunchies

2010-11-20T23:20:00.000-08:00

Ingredients

100g rolled oats
50g medium oatmeal
150g soft brown sugar
100ml corn oil
1 egg
Half teaspoon almond essence

Optional:
Dried cranberries
Toasted almonds (slightly crushed)

Mix oats, oatmeal, sugar and oil in a bowl. Leave to stand for an hour. Add the egg, almond essence, dried cranberries and almonds and mix thoroughly. Please teaspoons of the mixture on a greased baking tray and use the back of a spoon or fork to press flat.

Bake for 15-20 mins at 180C. Leave to cool for 2 mins before transferring to wire rack.

Ox-tail soup in November 2010

2010-11-08T19:10:00.000-08:00

Ingredients

1 ox-tail (about CAD$11)
8 bowls of water
1 onion
2 large carrots
4 field tomatoes
1 tsp herbs*
1 bay leaf
3 slices ginger
6 cloves garlic
half cup of wine (sherry is best)
salt and pepper to taste

Udon noodles
Head of broccoli
(*provencale or thyme, optional)

Blanche the ox-tail in boiling water then set aside.
Saute onions, garlic and ginger in big pot with one tbsp olive oil.
Add ox-tail to pan fry to seal in the juices.
Add water, followed by carrots, wine, tomatoes.
Keep on med low for 2 hours.
Add broccoli in the last 5 minutes

Boil fresh udon noodles for 3 minutes.
Ladle enough to cover noodles. Add green cut chili and you'll have enough to feed 7-8.

Fresh Fish October 2010

2010-10-31T23:00:00.000-07:00

Fresh Fish September 2010

2010-09-24T15:34:00.000-07:00

Fresh Fish August 2010

2010-08-27T13:54:00.000-07:00

July Fresh Fish 2010

2010-07-24T17:46:00.001-07:00

June 2010

2010-06-01T11:22:00.001-07:00

Successful 曼頭 and Peanut butter cookies

2010-05-24T23:46:00.000-07:00

So I'm not a fan of anything that needs rising. First of all, it takes too long and second- I hate to make a small batch. Still, the need to steam some bao was beyond the casual itch, so bao-dom, there I went. I ended up making twelve. It turned out beautiful and I was kickin' myself for not stuffing it with char siew like the recipe asked for. Instead, it could be a good staple to stick in some curried stew I was planning this week.

This was a recipe my ex-colleague Arlene shared with me years ago when I worked at the EFCCM office. Simplest pea-brainer PB cookie recipe.

1 cup of sugar
1 cup of peanut butter (I used crunchy)
1 egg

Mix them up and roll them up in balls. I added kashi on some, pressed an almond in others and baked the rest virgin. Proof they were good? I ate 3.

Recipe for basbosa

2010-05-18T10:55:00.000-07:00

1 cup wheatless
Half cup coconut
Half cup oil
half cup yoghurt
One third cup water
1 spoon baking powder

Mix all the ingredients together. Oil the surface of a shallow non-stick baking sheet before putting the mix onto it. Bake in the oven for 30 minutes at 350F (180C)

Bring to boil, one and a third cup of sugar and one and half cups of water. Add a teaspoon of vanilla and a few drops of lemon juice. Cool before pouring it over the baked basbosa to steep for half an hour.

Mother's Day Open Homes Party 2010

2010-05-16T18:17:00.000-07:00

Playing "Soularium" to get to know one another.

Leftmost side is Davone (from Laos); Sitting L-R: JiHong (from Hunan, China), Ronda (from Egypt), Helen (from Chengdu, China), Stephanie and Sarah (from Philippines)

Having a spot of tea, a smidgen of coffee and a whack of homemades. Ronda's basbosa was a delightful Egyptian dessert!

A group photo on this lovely Sunday afternoon 16 May 2010 (L-R) Sarah, Stephanie, Ji Hong, Cindy, Shirley, Ronda, Zhong Le, Davone, and Helen.

Cindy Shum (from Toronto/Hong Kong) sharing her encounter with Jesus in the office and how He made a difference in her life.

Fresh Fish April- May 2010

2010-05-06T22:56:00.000-07:00

Fresh Fish March 2010

2010-03-30T16:57:00.000-07:00

Char Siew Bau recipe

2010-03-28T00:13:00.001-07:00

Okay, every once and again, we have a yen for these delectable dim sum staples- an entire meal in a round ball of flour. But then again, there's more than flour that meets the eye and greets the taste buds. Here's a recipe I had tried and worked.

Ingredients for the filling:
1 tsp oil
8 oz BBQ pork (diced char siew)
3 tsp Shaoxing rice wine
1 tsp sesame oil
2 tbsp oyster sauce
2 tsp light soy sauce
3 tsp sugar
chili sauce

For the dough: (makes 12 large or 24 small buns)
3 tbsp sugar
1 cup warm water
1.5 tsp dried yeast
3.25 cups all purpose flour
2 tbsp oil
1.5 tsp baking powder

Dissolve the sugar in the water, then add the yeast. Stir lightly, then set aside for 10 mins, or until foamy.

Sift the flour into a bowl and add the yeast mixture and the oil. Using a wooden spoon, mix the ingredients into a rough dough. Turn the mixture out onto a lightly floured surface and knead for 8-10 mins, or until the dough is smooth and elastic. If it is very sticky, knead in a little more flour- the dough should be soft. Lightly grease a bowl with the oil. Place the dough in the bowl and turn it so that all sides of the dough are coasted. Cover the bowl with a damp cloth and set aside to rise in a draft-free place for 3 hours.

Uncover the dough, punch it down and turn it out onto a lightly floured surface. If you are not using the dough right away, cover it with plastic wrap and refrigerate.

When you are ready to make the dough, flatten it and make a well in the centre. Place the baking powder into the well and gather up the edges to enclose the baking powder. Pinch the edges to seal. Lightly knead the dough for several minutes to incorporate the baking powder, which will activate immediately.

Heat the oil in the wok. Add the pork, rice wine, sesame oil, oyster sauce, soy sauce and sugar and cook for one minute. Allow to cool.

Divide the dough into 12 or 24 portions, depending on how large you want the buns to be, and cover with a kitchen towel. Working with 1 portion at a time, press the dough into circles with the edges thinner than the centre. Place 1 tsp of filling on the dough for a small bun or 3 tsp for a large bun. Draw the sides in to enclose the filling. Pinch the top together and put each bun on a square of waxed paper. When you get more proficient at making these, you may be able to get more filling into the buns, which will make them less doughy. Ensure that you seal them properly. The buns can also be turned over, then cooked the other way up so that they look like round balls.

Arrange the buns well spaced in 3 steamers. Cover and steam over simmering water in a wok, reversing the steamers halfway through, for 15 mins or until the buns are well-risen and a skewer inserted into the centre comes out hot. Serve with some chili sauce.

Fresh Fish February 2010

2010-02-27T21:55:00.000-08:00

Shirouri cucumber pickles

2010-01-17T16:58:00.000-08:00

In a tiny Izakaya in Tokyo called Shinsuke is a recipe made known to me via a Christmas present from Myron's god-parents Anthony and Connie. Japanese tapas bars or Izakaya was unknown to me up until last year when we first visited Zakkushi- a local eatery on 4th Avenue and Burrard in Vancouver. My good friend Helen brought us there when we decided to meet and her kids were lovin' the skewered momos and chicken teriyaki don.

Ever since then, I've been learning about these appetizers, morsel-sized and absolutely addictive. This recipe calls for shirouri summer squashes but it's the dead of winter in Vancouver, and we must flex and do creatively what mother nature does not provide. I tried Japanese cukes and they worked out beautifully...which is the reason why I am feeling good enough to blog this publicly. So, if you're feeling somewhat in the mood for a little something on the side, this'll probably whet your appy.

Ingredients:
Two Japanese or Korean cucumbers (roughly 6-7 inches)
White sesame seeds
Sesame seed oil

Brine:
1 heaping tsp sea salt
1 cup (240ml) water

1. Cut off both ends of cucumber, then in half.
2. Core the halves with a sharp paring knife
3. Taking one half at a time, carve the halves into a continuous 1/4 inch (6mm) thick ribbon at a 45 degree angle.
4. Do this gently to avoid splitting.
5. In a medium bowl, make the brine and soak the ribbons until lightly salted, about 1-2 hours.
6. Hang the ribbons to dry where there's a breeze circulating until the skin is a little wrinkled, about 3 hours.
7. Cut into 2 inches in length and add a few drops of sesame oil.
8. Sprinkle sesame seeds and serve chilled.

Fresh Fish January 2010

2010-01-16T15:43:00.001-08:00

Pickled Radish

2010-01-09T22:12:00.000-08:00

I was in Richmond having dinner with my niece's step grandmother Esther when she offered some of her home-pickled radishes. Now I don't know much about radish, but there's always something about pickling them at home that makes these incredibly delectable. How? It has to be sweet-soury yet, retaining some of its radishy identity- you know, that woody bite. The trick I discovered while pickling my own today, was to make them paper thin. The kind that you can read the newspaper print should it fall on the newspaper.

If you felt like pickling your own, here's the skinny:

Pick a heavy radish (the length from your fingers to elbow)
Slice it paper thin (I use a handy mandolin slicer)
Use 1 Tbsp sea salt to sweat the liquid out
Put aside for 3-4 hours, then drain the clear water out
Mix a quarter cup of rice vinegar (I used Golden Crown Garden brand)
with a quarter cup of sugar
Pour the mixture onto the radish
Put in the fridge for at least 2 hours

You've got a great side dish that goes well with any roasted meat. I had spicy noodles and this was a great cooling appy.

Lemon Squares Recipe

2010-01-08T14:12:00.000-08:00

Crust:
210g Unsalted butter
0.5 cup Icing sugar
1.75 cups all purpose flour
.25 tsp salt

Filling:
2 cups granulated white sugar
4 large eggs or 5 med eggs
Juice from 2 lemons
2 Tbsp of grated lemon zest (from two lemons)
4 Tbsp All purpose flour

For the crust: Cream butter and sugar till fluffy. Add flour and salt till dough comes together. Press to bottom of greased pan (9 x 12" pan). Bake at 180C (350F) for about 24 mins or till lightly browned.

If you didn't have time to make the crust, the lemon filling recipe is enough for 24 regular tart shells.

For the filling: Beat sugar and eggs. Add lemon zest and juice. Fold in flour. Pour filling into baked crust and return to oven for 25 mins or until filling sets. Cool before dusting the top with icing sugar.

December 2009 Fresh Fish

2009-12-22T15:04:00.001-08:00

食べ物 Tabemonolog 15 December 2009

2009-12-15T22:00:00.000-08:00

So we visited Zakkushi- a fabulous hole in the wall place opposite Safeway in Vancouver. It was so inspiring, I marinated chicken for my own skewered delights for supper the next day.

So the chawanmushi was my first try. It was a little too salty and I'd should've taken it out maybe a minute earlier.

Advent potlucky thoughts

2009-12-03T12:47:00.000-08:00

My good friend Idelette had asked me to write a brief note about Advent according to my Chinese roots. Christmas is a distinctly North American holiday celebrating a very Jewish individual who doesn't seem to have much to do with the Chinese. Ah but here's the rub, that we can celebrate His Gift of Love to us without the blinders of cultural borders or ethnic dividers, because through God's eyes, He is the Given and Risen Saviour to humankind.

It’s been turkey every year since my family moved to Canada, but this year, I desperately want to go back to my Asian roots where our tastes for scalding broth and paper thin meat run gut deep. Every year, my home’s been open to immigrants from lands too remote to remember and still too reminiscent of home to forget. People come because they’ve been invited into a home, with a promise of cranberried and gravied fowl, where they would be served, and someone’s historic journey across the Pacific pond will be shared. Inevitably, mashed potatoes will end up on the floor, our guinea pig Momo would be squealing for attention from the visiting children, all will be a bevy of activity in the time it takes to sit down, eat and discuss the dearth of snow and the less-than-charming BC winter.

But this year, I’m prompted to share a communal pot where every one cooks together. I grew up in a family with seven people and hot potting is a special occasion where food gets scooped and served from one to another. It reminds me, nostalgically enough, of a bygone era where simple napa cabbage (the cheapest veg), liver (a reasonable meat), prawns and the ever-versatile tofu can extend a dinner by an hour. And what great conversations we had around the old hot pot with the copper funnel and the smouldering charcoal!

This Christmas, as I think ahead to prepare the meal, I’ll put out an extra chopstick for Jesus, the foreigner, or the gaijin in our midst. He’s the reason we are celebrating Christmas with a hotpot, because an Advent hotpot is about bringing people from many nations together, under one roof, around one table, sharing one pot and talking about our lives, our hopes, our dreams. He’s going to be here that night, and he’s going to be using chopsticks, supping with us, and whispering his love to each person in attendance.

And mark my words, someone is going to ask, “Who’s that extra chopstick for?” and I’m going to tell him.

Reflect:
A word for today: Supping
Activity: Open your home to a new friend
Prayer: Lord, help me open my heart, my home, to you first, then to my neighbour.

Top 10 values

2009-12-02T07:44:00.000-08:00

1. God's immutable Word.
2. Being able to diligently and continuously express creativity in writing, speaking, painting, design and communications in order to encounter Jesus in a meaningful ways
3. Being a Kingdom-culture influence in the life of my family members through speech and deed
4. Discovering new things, new words, new restaurants, new dramas, new languages, a new method of design, communication; to learn from fellow-artists, appreciating beauty, understanding God through the medium of the creative arts
5. Spending time alone
6. Being involved in the lives of creative individuals by nurturing and encouraging growth in an environment which fosters fun and faith
7. Excellence (doing everything to the best of my abilities whether cooking, cleaning, designing, or treating people)
8. Honesty
9. Comfortable traveling
10. Healthy living

Fresh Fish November 2009

2009-11-30T09:35:00.000-08:00

Selling our Yamaha piano

2009-11-18T15:01:00.000-08:00

Here's our 8 year old Yahama C1 upright piano that I'd like to sell for $1500 obo before Christmas. Leave me a comment or email me: shirlock67@shaw.ca. Price does not include transportation or shipping.

Thank you!

食べ物 Tabemonolog 16 November 2009

2009-11-16T21:39:00.001-08:00

I had a yen for yoghurt tonight and since I missed breakfast this morning wanted a second chance during dessert. The solution: French vanilla yoghurt + homemade strawberry jam, frozen blueberries and kashi all over. The quickest way to clear the dinner plates is to put these right at the dining table. Beautifully satisfying.

Brian Crook was the first one to serve us white asparagus with a ladleful of mayo and ham over rice, and I've never forgotten it. Was it in Blonay, Switzerland on the hill opposite to Glion where we lived? All I remember was we went out the very next day and recreated the exact same dish and had it for dinner in the evening. Here's remembering your hospitality to us, Brian.

Elegance

2009-11-14T11:56:00.000-08:00

What is elegance? Elegance comes from the French word elegans, which is related to "eligere" which means to choose or to select. We get another English word from this- "elect".

As I pondered this notion of elegance, I think of the wife of noble character in Proverbs 31. It is with purposeful intent and choosing to do what is right before God (vs 30..."but a woman who fears the Lord is to be praised") that makes her surpass all others. Elegance is a word that is almost passe in this century, but it struck me today that I have been chosen to reflect the wondrous elegance of our Creator God, in dress, in speech, in posture, in thought, in deed and in my relationships.

The most elegant woman today is a woman of incredible force and godly influence.

食べ物 Tabemonolog 12 November 2009

2009-11-12T21:48:00.001-08:00

There's something about devil's cake that makes it so diabolically bad for you. First there's all that chocolate. An obscene amount of it. And butter. What's homemade chocolate icing without a slab of bovine milk fat? At the end of what was a 60 minute exercise in the kitchen became a 60 second empirical experience in eating the cake. It's all so innocent, which is why it's diabolical in the first place...

食べ物 Tabemonolog 9 Nov 2009

2009-11-09T20:59:00.001-08:00

Teriyaki hamburger + egg on rice, with mayo-ed brocs and prawn cracker. I've heard that hamburger rice is East-meet-West goodness. I missed lunch today and I'm SO glad get off my Mac (whose optical drive is on the fritz) and throw on an apron...Thank God for my half an hour of dinner haven with Myron and dad. Dad looks a bit miffed about my dinner since I decided I preferred cheesy fajitas instead.(Myron insists on calling them the Family Guy way- Fah-Jai-tas...LOL) Myron, still my sweet potooey.

食べ物 Tabemonolog 8 Nov 2009

2009-11-08T19:33:00.000-08:00

Felt incredibly rushed tonight since I went out to Chapters to look at manga comics. Found one that was really inspiring, called Solanin. The quickest dinner to put together is probably beef steak teriyaki and to stir fried buddha's palm with carrots. Wasn't anything to shout about but the apple and blueberry crisp was deep-dish delish.

GOOBE short-sighted and stringy-chested.

2009-11-08T14:13:00.000-08:00

This is Goobe ("Goo-bey"). He is the inspiration to my need to make an Ugly doll that's cheaper than what's currently on the market. Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, else, it's the cheaper way to show appreciation for the designy things in life. Goobe now sits in my god-daughter Rebecca's family room window overlooking what must be their manicured backyard in Vancouver.

食べ物 Tabemonolog 7 Nov 2009

2009-11-07T20:23:00.001-08:00

I didn't have buckwheat noodles but I had Hua Long handmade dried noodles so I thought let's do it like cold soba with Mizkan oigatsuo-tsuyu. It was actually really good. Bonito flavoured soya sauce that could also be used for hot soups. Very happy with my find. Now it's raining cats and dogs and I had wanted to go to Chapters to find some manga comics...guess, I'm staying in to study Japanese.

Momo もも guard pet

2009-11-06T20:42:00.000-08:00

もも (Momo) is our pet guinea pig- I love how he looks- always innocent and curious about the world around him. Here he is, guarding the stairs that lead to my bedroom...he's got the smallest, cutest lil' paws!

食べ物 Tabemonolog 5 Nov 2009

2009-11-05T23:34:00.000-08:00

The weatherman said expect 70km/h winds and he might've well written tonight's dinner menu: Pumpkin soup, chicken casserole with garlic bread and basalmic vinegretted tomatoes, because windy weather always makes me want to make everything rich, creamy and dripping with butter. Pumpkin soup is one of the heartiest soups. It's times like these when a Kitchen Aid Food Processor would come in handy, but then again, my PC blender did the job quite nicely.

Tina came over for dins which was a treat because I haven't seen her for ages and she's such a trooper (cos' she's hungry!) and I like people to come hungry. We chowed down then chin-wagged, prayed and got caffeinated, all before 10:45pm. Now I'm ready to snack on my sunflower seeds...

Bakgua recipe

2009-11-04T22:13:00.000-08:00

Ingredients:

2lbs of regular ground pork
8 Tbsp of sugar
3 Tbsp of fish sauce
3 Tbsp of oyster sauce (or hoisin is fine)
3 Tbsp of soya sauce
White pepper or chili flakes depending on how spicy you want it.

Mix all the ingredients together to marinate at least 5 hours. Better if it's overnight. Spread it thinly on a cookie sheet to bake at 350C for approx 30 minutes. Halfway through, flip it over to brown both sides evenly. Do not be stingy on the sugar as that's what holds it together.

Microwave them for 20 seconds if you wish to reheat them as they taste better after a day.

食べ物 Tabemonolog 3 Nov 2009

2009-11-04T19:45:00.000-08:00

For drinkies, it's important to get something with lift (think fizz), but knowing I was going to OD on saturated fats tonight, how about fresh OJ with Sidra (Mo's fav fizzy apple cider) and pomegranates for couleur, eh? On second thoughts, I should've used clementines for better citrussy goodness.

So dad had caught pink salmon from the Frasier River. It was soft even though I had encased it in eggwash and cajun seasoning. Twice. But it had a subtle taste of salmony flavour without fishyness. Heaven forbid fishyness! And deep frying fries. Oh my, my hair smells like McDonald's right now. I SO need a bath. The sauce? It's newly minted Srirachuptonaise (Srirachai chili + ketchup + mayonnaise). おいしい with tongue-tingling pimentoes as well...not for the faint of tongue.

"Listen" and "Silent" contain the same letters

2009-11-02T19:44:00.000-08:00

I gave myself 30 minutes to shop for groceries at T&T on Halloween afternoon. I stopped for a-steal-of-a-deal mangos and started to snort them to figure out how much sugar was in there. An elderly lady came right by me and asked if "war swour or war me sweemt?" It took me a while before I could understand she was asking if I thought they were sour or sweet. I could tell she was Asian so I spoke to her in Mandarin, but she was quite happy to practice her English on me. Her oversized clothes were dishevelled, her uncombed hair under an old wolly cap and she had gold caps on most of her teeth which aren’t already rotten off.

Her name? Jackie.

When I have conversations with strangers, 9 out of 10 times was because I had initiated it. To be on the receiving end is always a bit surprising, especially since I was counting the minutes before I had to go and meet Myron at our meeting place. But she was determined to have a conversation. She told me she's from China and she began to ask where I was from and how long I've lived here in Canada. She seemed very interested in who I was. One topic led to another and she talked about the sad state of the Canadian government. She belittled their efforts for taking care of the country and BC because there are so many people who are homeless and are taking drugs. She went on to say that she has never voted even though she can. Right away, I got on my You've-got-to-voice-your-vote soapbox.

I took that as a cue to say what I thought about the sad state of politics by saying "I am a Christian and we need to pray for our-" I never got further than that. The next few minutes were probably the longest minutes God held my tongue. Almost rehearsed in her mind were the words that "God doesn't exist, He doesn't love, just look at the state of the world, that (pointing a finger at me) I've been brainwashed, that Jesus has nothing to do with the Chinese because he's a Jewish man, from Israel! Christianity is an ad. It's like all the other religions and so she doesn’t follow any religion.” She had such a long list of things she chose not to believe in and all this while, my brain was mired in "1. How to talk about spiritual things? 2. How to share my 3-minute testimony and 3. How to give her the Gospel and 4. How to invite her into the Kingdom?"

The formulaic way of bringing her closer to Jesus was going in the spiritual shredder! I could not get a word in edgewise. God held my tongue and from the moment I knew I had no choice but to listen, I chose to give up my "proven methods". I became silent inside and it became clearer each time her voice rose the lesson God was teaching me. People were sneaking around us to pinch a mango or five into plastic bags but Jackie was not moving from that spot.

She talked about her cousin who won at every gambling match in the casino in China. He never lost. That's almost like how he would bring home the bacon. I kept thinking that nobody is ever *that* lucky, he'll lose one day, gambling like that! But he died suddenly, at age 27- the ultimate “loss”. She was only a young girl then, but she remembered her aunt went crazy with grief because that was her youngest son, and her favourite. Jackie must've known the the finality of death through her aunt's eyes, and it must have marred her long enough to recall this incident as if it happened yesterday.

You know, God speaks when we are silent before Him and listening to the person He wants us to love into His embrace. I put my arms around her and looked her right in her eyes and I said "you've seen a lot of pain in your life, haven't you?" In that instant, Jackie caved in and tears welled up in her tired, weary eyes. I hadn't seen it before but it was right there, plain as day. "I can see your heart is full of wounds, and you've been carrying these around a long time, haven't you?" She simply wept.

Her silence gave me the opportunity to seek permission to pray because God so clearly wanted me to simply meet the need. What was her need at that moment? She just wanted to be. She smiled weakly and I put my arms around her shoulders and prayed that God will reveal Himself to her, that He would show her how much He loved her. I never said such a short prayer ever, but really, that was all that was needed.

When I opened my eyes, she was smiling wanly. I called her Auntie Jackie and I asked if she could ever imagine me as someone who had lost a husband, a mother and a brother. That my son was only 20 months when his dad died of lung cancer at 35. That was 12 years ago. That was a shock to her and she acknowledged that I too, understood loss and grief. I shared how any ad (she alluded to that before) is not true until you try out the product. In many ways, she's right, Jesus is only an ad. There's no truth to Him or His abilities until you try Him personally. Then I could address her decision to believe that Jesus is culturally non-Chinese and therefore has nothing to do with her. I shared only one Chinese character “Xiang” for “Blessed”, that our ancestors were telling us to look out for God’s lamb and the only lamb I know in any dominant world religion is Jesus. That made her think a little, but then she asked if I was ever sad when my husband died so young. Well, of course I was, not forgetting I was angry too and hurt at the loss of my best friend and the father of my child. Being a Christian doesn't mean I don't feel hurt but it means I have hope, hope to see my husband, my mother and my brother because of their faith in Jesus, and what He did on the cross.

In the twenty minutes we hovered by the mangoes, I felt God saying something to me more than I was saying to Jackie. That Spirit-filled is doing things supernaturally, that having everything somewhat scripted in my mind is good, but it may not be God's best for that person. To be prepared to share the reason for our faith is Biblical, but to be prepared to listen is a supernatural act of the Spirit to humble me before God and man.

Myron finally found me and putting his arms around me said "hi" to Auntie Jackie. Her eyes grew wide at the child I talked about, who now, 12 years later, is saying with his body language "I love my mom. We're close." It's as if, all that I said is now confirmed as true because my son appeared and we're going shopping arms linked together for something quite as ordinary as eggs and milk and there really is a God who takes care of the grieving, the helpless and the lonely.

The mangoes were sour, by the way, but my encounter with Jackie, undeniably sweet.

Humility is the key to God and the key to the human heart.

食べ物Tabemonolog 2 Nov 2009

2009-11-02T19:25:00.000-08:00

食べ物 Tabemonolog is my new Food logging post. Tabemono means Food in Japanese and monolog is just a neat way of expressing "one-person-speak". Today I came back from PTC and felt like black pepper baby back ribs (BPBBR!)and Shanghai bok choy with minced beef and white rice. The burnt sweetness of the ribs and that rice was just a great combo. Throw in some "kim" (seaweed) to wrap it up...Yowzerz! Fortunately for us, Sunny dropped by and made me proud by eating everything off his plate and then after seconds!

Fresh Fish October 2009

2009-11-02T19:12:00.001-08:00

29th October 2009

2009-10-29T19:13:00.000-07:00

Today I got new glasses. They're Geoffrey Beene frames and I only remember Geoffrey Beene's men's fragrance. They're dorkey-designy, I've decided. And it sort of fits me. I took a long time to look for new glasses because I really liked the last, last pair I got at Paris Miki in Singapore. There's something about glasses that make me feel new. Like a new pair of leggings. I wonder why that is?

There aren't too many things in Canada that makes me go Ooh and Aah. I remember so many more things in Europe and Japan that made me wide-eyed. I've been watching this J-drama called "Around 40" since Yuka told me about it. It was really absorbing although it's because of Amami Yuki that made it mostly watchable. I've also started on Fumo Chitai (The Wasteland)- a difficult movie to watch about how the Russian army detained Japanese soldiers in a Siberian prison. This made for TV movie is to commemorate Fuji (?) TV's 50th year anniversary. I like how they tell engaging stories that make you care for the characters.

I think I should blog more often. I've begun to love cooking interesting dishes once more. Thought I lost it a while back there...and cooking to the tunes of Wang Faye, mmm...

Oh well. Jaa, mata.

September Fresh Fish 2009

2009-10-05T09:54:00.001-07:00

August Fresh Fish 2009

2009-08-14T21:48:00.001-07:00

The five most powerful questions in the world

2009-08-01T11:48:00.001-07:00

Today is August 1, 2009. It's Switzerland's national day. It's also the first day I woke up with a renewed hunger in my heart for God's wisdom. It's fair to say that I'm always questioning, and discovery is THE best part of any given day. The five most powerful questions in the world are:

Who, What, Why, When and How.

Simple isn't it?

Every person on this planet is trying to figure out their position and meaning as it relates to others and to the material world, aren't they? Self-help books on How to -fill in your own blanks- abound. It would be perfect if only for the fact that humans will follow the rules of any given self-help book until it becomes inconvenient. And inconvenient, it promises to be if not now, eventually. What are we inundated with?

How to be a great leader.
How to be successful.
How to be good in bed.

Wouldn't we all want to know how we can live a satisfying life, with a good reputation, to have good health and always enough on our plates? Wouldn't anyone want to be shown the best way to live? We all want that, but often on our own terms. I am such an example. The best way to live is not to follow another but to journey with one who will love and live through these experiences with me. I've journeyed with a few people who were there with me for parts of the journey, but only with Jesus have I experienced love and living in an intimate space called "My Life". You might be thinking, oh...Jesus freak, but I'd have to say, I'm really far from that. I'm too rational to be one. I am however, asking him a lot of questions from some of the promises I found in the Bible. I'd ask other religious leaders too, but for now, I'll ask Jesus:

What do you mean by giving me abundant life? How does that look like? (John 10)
You offer long life, riches and honour, guidance and satisfaction in you. (Prov 3) How can I commit to wanting that all the time, and always choosing your way?

It occurred to me a key verse in Proverbs 3: 5-6

"Trust in the Lord with all your heart, do not depend on your own understanding.
Seek His will in all you do, and He will show you which path to take."

Life, it seems, is a twisty, windy, multiple choiced variety of variations. From my viewpoint, there are three paths: what looks right to me, what looks wrong to me and the third possibility, which is the hidden path I cannot see and possibly never even considered! Every day, and several times in the day, I find myself asking Jesus, "What now? Or How do we do this? Or When will it happen? Or Who will be the one? Why can't that happen?"

Do you ask? Whom do you ask? I like asking Jesus because He's engaged with me in the nitty gritties of my life. He knows me. He knows me well and He used to lead me to places I didn't want to go. That was in my younger days where I decided to take him to places I'd rather be. After years of him letting me lead, I found out I was going in circles and not being really happy where I was. He allowed me that, you know. He did tell me that really wasn't what he would've wanted for me. He leads me today to the places I am curious why He wants me there. And in following His lead, I've discovered the path of submission and the joy of being directed to love others.

Why?

Because He loves me. How can a dead guy love me? How can I even sense He loves me? I guess in the same way I put to test how anyone who says they love me, actually love me. Here's one:

"A gentle answer deflects anger, but harsh words make tempers flare." Prov 15:1

How many of us have tested that? Why would this be in the Bible? Let me be honest. I never had to learn the second half of this verse. I am living proof that I can make tempers flare with harsh words! But the first half about giving a gentle answer? Wow. I do that and I get a discussion instead of a screaming match. Is it possible that God wants the best for us, to live in harmony despite being very different from each other? What a notion!

To be continued...

July Fresh Fish 2009

2009-07-31T22:09:00.000-07:00

June Fresh Fish 2009

2009-07-01T14:31:00.000-07:00

May Fresh Fish 2009

2009-06-02T22:06:00.000-07:00

Vine and branches May 15, 2009

2009-05-15T08:39:00.000-07:00

Today, I looked at a very familiar passage in John 15 about Jesus being the true vine and I am a branch connected to Him. He says that I have already been pruned and purified by the message He has given me. Then He gives this exhortation:

"Remain in Me, and I will remain in you. For a branch cannot produce fruit if it is severed from the vine, and you cannot be fruitful unless you remain in Me." - John 15:4

I asked myself if I have willfully severed myself from Jesus? What might that look like? Then I suddenly see how I can check if I had- by looking at fruitfulness in my life. What does fruit look like? Is it someone who has received Jesus in his life? Is it someone who is learning about Jesus? Is it a Bible Study full of attendees? Events I helped to create that has brought people into the Kingdom? Just what does fruit look like? I dropped my eyes to the verse 9:

"I have loved you even as the Father has loved Me. Remain in My love. When you obey My commandments, you remain in My love, just as I obey My Father's commandments and remain in His love."

How do I remain in Jesus' love? Scripture seems to be telling me when I obey His commandments, I remain in His love, just like how Jesus did to remain in His Father's love. What are Jesus' commandments? He made it amply clear to me this morning in verse
12 "This is my commandment: Love each other in the same way I have loved you." How has Jesus loved me? Sacrificially. It is other-centred. He laid down His life for his friend. He laid down His life for me.

Then Wow. Love, love, love. When I love as Jesus loves the Father, obeying is joyful, because love received, will also reciprocated. The love relationship that Jesus has with the Father is fluidly yet concretely based on love. God showed me that loving each other is exactly like Jesus and His Father's relationship.

The fruits I will produce is the effect of my loving others. I cannot will these fruits to appear, but I can choose to love others. And by choosing to love others, I will bear much fruit. Am I choosing to love others? I think perhaps this is what it looked like the past week.

In loving others, I said yes to going out to Richmond for dinner with Karl and a friend he wanted to introduce me to. I was not feeling 100% and it was a long way to drive to Richmond, but I loved this friend of Karl's before I met her, and what God would have me do is worthwhile and joyful. I reaped the benefits of seeing her journey with Jesus in a new way.

In loving Josh (not his real name), I spent time listening to his faith journey. He had a very interesting past and had embraced many different faiths. To be able to spend time, and to hear another person's life story is a remarkable privilege to me. I was able to share in the briefest of minutes my own faith journey and how Jesus made a difference in my life.

My love tank is filled when I sit still and embrace the fullness of the cross and what Jesus did for me. For in His love with His Father, He hung on the cross for me. I am dearly loved, fully redeemed, and joyfully reinstated in His family. What a joy it is to love others the way Jesus loves me!

April 2009

2009-04-29T13:08:00.000-07:00

Susan Boyle

2009-04-15T18:59:00.000-07:00

Once in a purple moon (when it's long past being blue), you run across a story that is worth its salt, that touches the human soul because of its capacity to be true and humble, yet grandiose and larger than life. I was sent a link from my dear friend Lu to watch a phenomenon that is currently overtaking Youtube. Five days and it's hit 9 million viewers. There's something that is touching, strumming, and humming in the hearts of many of us.

Our world deems beauty a "talent" when all it is, is "personal, subjective like". If by external measurement we call one such person "beautiful", surely, that is a compliment for the Creator. Susan Boyle had talent long before she was discovered by Britain's got talent. Many commented on Youtube one should never judge the book by its cover and rightly so. Simon Cowell did an eyeroll when she said she was 47. Perhaps it's rare to see a 47 year old hit all the right notes. I might have done the same if I've sat through hundreds, if not thousands of wannabe singers who do better in the shower than on stage. Still, it warms my heart to see the underdog become top dog, someone older than most other contestants take her place on the stage, walk off after her rendition (out-Paigeing Elaine Paige, out-Fantineing Melora Hardin), completely unaware of protocol, and then curtsy at the end with "thanks" and sending an old-fashioned flying kiss to her instant fan club thundering a second ovation. (Maybe it was the first standing ovation that never sat down.)

It's one of those timeless moments where I can hear God whisper "My ways are far different from the world's, My ways are higher than yours." He takes the simple, the humble, the weak and the marked down castoffs and lifts them to where He is. All the talent in Susan's voice can not make up for the effort and the courage she showed to actually stand before her critics. In an age where television sells epidermal beauty, it's a breath of fresh air to see something this surprising, this polarizing, this positive.

March 2009

2009-03-29T12:04:00.000-07:00

February 2009 Fresh Fish

2009-02-05T15:03:00.001-08:00

January 2009 New Chum

2009-01-06T09:56:00.000-08:00

Fresh Fish December 2008

2008-12-18T09:25:00.000-08:00

Fresh Fish November 2008

2008-11-14T00:02:00.000-08:00

Fresh Fish October 2008

2008-10-23T23:09:00.001-07:00

Fresh Fish September 2008

2008-09-20T22:11:00.000-07:00

Fresh Fish August 2008

2008-08-30T10:41:00.000-07:00

Singapore Photo Journal 2008

2008-08-07T19:29:00.000-07:00

Fresh Fish July 2008

2008-07-10T23:02:00.000-07:00

June Fresh Fish 2008

2008-06-16T00:33:00.000-07:00

May Fresh Fish 2008

2008-05-11T16:10:00.000-07:00

April Fresh Fish 2008

2008-05-03T17:48:00.001-07:00

Fresh Fish March 2008

2008-03-12T10:34:00.000-07:00

The First Relationship Forum

2008-02-07T15:16:00.000-08:00

February 2008 Fresh Fish

2008-02-01T15:22:00.000-08:00

January 2008 Fresh Fish

2008-01-05T14:10:00.001-08:00

December 2007 Newsletter

2007-12-13T15:37:00.001-08:00

Fresh Fish November 2007

2007-11-28T00:27:00.000-08:00

Fresh Fish October 2007

2007-11-07T09:32:00.000-08:00

Fresh Fish September 2007

2007-09-28T12:00:00.001-07:00

August 2007 Expanded Version

2007-08-13T03:01:00.001-07:00

Staff Conference at Whistler July 2007. This is the Intercultural Network team from the Edmonton and Vancouver area.

I sat next to Gujarati Indians- Indravadan and his wife Sarojben Chauhan, from Markham, ON en route to Toronto. I was so tired that morning but God gave me an hour to nap and then a wonderful opportunity to share about Jesus when Indravadan asked me about my husband. We talked for 2 hours about who Jesus is and they shared their vegetable samosas and tandoori chicken with me. It was the best in-flight non-airline food I ever had.

New friends I encountered in Richmond Hill. I was invited by my supporter Lynn Chen (far right) to visit Paul Chalupnik (first on left) and the home he took 2 years to design its interior. Taiwanese couple Ann and Tyrone live in Toronto. Do pray for all 3 of them that the Gospel I was able to share will get them to ask really good questions.

At Showers of Blessings (SOBEM) in Scarborough with the manager of TV productions Stephen Woo. A real creative spark, I really enjoyed talking to Stephen and touring all the facilities.

Mr Perry Chan and Mr Samuel Carr- the creative duo from Network Productions whom I hope will be able to shoot the training DVD in September. God willing!

Bernadette and Ben Lam (Ben is one of the directors on the Board at SOBEM) who treated me to egg tarts and milk tea at Times Centre.

Lee Wong, a fellow Singaporean who pastors the English congregation at Bridle Trail Chinese Baptist in Unionville, Scarborough.

Sharing your faith on Yonge Street, the longest street in the world, is a matter of choice. Here Muslims are actively sharing their faith and giving out the Koran in English.

On our way to Kensington market in Chinatown. Okay, okay, I really wanted some bubble tea.

$6 to get us over to Toronto island (weekdays are 2 for 1 after 5pm) where Lynn and I took the less trodden path. We ended up at the water's edge and had to go back. At least we went on the road untravelled!

7pm view of downtown Toronto where the CN tower pierces the sun-setting sky.

Checked out the Art Gallery of Ontario (AGO) near Chinatown.

Met with Darcy MacCallum who works with Inter-Cultural Neighbourhood Social Services in Mississauga. I learned lots from Darcy about how to go about caring for newcomers in Canada.

I Starbucked for the 4th time but this day with an ex-roomie from my Evangelical Free Church Mission Conference days- Maureen Chung. She pastors at Metro Chinese in Scarbarough and brought 7 people to New York recently for an outreach. Folks, she's been at this for 14 years and this is the first team out. That just encourages the heebie-jeebies out of me.

I walked to St Lawrence Market where I had veal parmagian with eggplant and sphagger's sauce at Mustachio's- an Italian eatery that was very popular over lunch time.

Not too far away is The Distillery, once brewed beer, now an artsy corner of town where artists come to hang their canvases and show off their work. My favourite place is Bergo where many of the product designer stuff just tickled me orange.

The Law Faculty of The University of Toronto not too far from the Royal Ontario Museum.

Being so near a powerful waterfall on Maids of the Mist made me think how close we humans want to get to something more powerful than us and not get pulverized. Yes, the poncho was absolutely essential outerwear!

Here's Melvin! He came to Christ at the last year before he graduated from University of Alberta and knows about Campus ministry. The church he attends- Airport Fellowship Church (formerly Toronto Vineyard) started this tour bus ministry to bring visitors from their church around the city. Now it's actually become a lucrative business!

Niagara-on-the-lake is a beautiful town where I caught the sunniest Saturday country fair selling peach salsas, homemade ice-creams, buttery corn on the cob and musicians from both USA and Canada performing on the streets.

The 10th anniversary of the Butterfly Conservatory commemorated on the flower clock. Such a throwback to my days of living in Switzerland where a similiar clock sits in Geneva.

The whirlpool that forms from the massive Niagara Falls and the ancient tram that squeaks across it.

Sri Lankans Kumari Herath and June Beekmeyer show what friendship is all about.

Toronto is an interesting and intercultural melting pot. Here Pakistanis were celebrating achievements by Canadian Pakistanis. Premier of Ontario, Dalton McGuinty was on hand to give out the awards.

Fresh Fish August 2007

2007-08-12T04:47:00.000-07:00