Katsu Don

Katsu Don has been one of my favorite Japanese dishes. It turns out that making it is not so hard and really good.

Ingredients for the tonkatsu:
5-6 pieces skinless & boneless porkchops
flour
2 eggs, beaten
panko bread crumbs
salt, pepper and meat tenderizer (optional)

Method:
Sprinkle salt, pepper and meat tenderizer on the porkchop
Put flour and tap the excess flour
Dip it into the egg
Put the panko onto the pork, and pat them well
Put it into the oven 425 F for 8-10 minutes each side
Once done, sliced each tonkatsu about 1-1.5 cm wide.

Tonkatsu, fresh from the oven

Ingredients for the katsu don:

1 sachet Dashi No Moto powdered soup stock, mix with 1 1/2 cup of water

4 tbs soy sauce
2 tbs mirin
1 tbs sugar
1/2 onion
3 eggs, lightly beaten

Method:
Put the stock into the pan in medium heat
Add in sugar, soy sauce and mirin

Put the onion and simmer for a few minutesPut in the tonkatsu slices into the pan, simmer for a few minutes on low heat

Pour the eggs over and cover the pan with lid. Simmer for few minutes.Then it's done! Place the pork on top of Japanese rice. Enjoy! :)

@ Work

Richard and I recently watched a sermon from Northpoint church entitling "@ Work". It's a very simple message, yet it's very true, relevant and applicable to our daily life. Quoted from the description of the message: Many of us will spend half of our lives at work. Yet research tells us that over 80 percent of us are dissastified with our jobs, feeling fearful and frustrated most of the time. This message, Jeff Henderson (the speaker) offers a perspective on work that could forever change your experience "on the job". I highly encourage you to listen and watch it yourself. There's 3 parts sermon, I just watched the first part.

I will write it down for a reminder to myself.

Some of us, or most, we are trapped. We are frustrated, stressed with our job, but at the same time we are fearful that we might lose the job that gives us so much frustration. How ironic!

God created the idea of work. Work was God's idea. We should discover God's original idea purpose of work. We should connect the purpose of work and the purpose of you. We will never understand the purpose at work until we understand the purpose of work.

So what is the purpose of work? Is it for paying the bill? Identity? purpose? success?
None of these are God's original idea of work.

Going back all the way into the Book of Genesis:
Many of us believe that the idea of work starts in Genesis 3:17 -- "Cursed is the ground because of you; through painful toil you will eat of it, all the days of your life. "
Work is not introduced to us as a curse; but in Gen 2:15 -- The LORD God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it.
Before the fall of the sin, God gave work to man, not as a curse, but as a blessing. Just like God who created the heaven and earth, who "worked" for six days, so much that He enjoyed it, that He wanted men to enjoy work as much as God did. So, work is a blessing.

The purpose of work
Colossians 3:23
Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for men.

What does working for the Lord mean?
You work for Jesus. Whatever it is that you do, it reflects upon Jesus.

Marthin Luther once said: the men who sweeps the kitchen floor is doing the will of God, just as much as the monk who prays, not because he might sing praises and hymns while he sweeps, but God likes clean floor :)

The purpose of my life @ work is to show that God is @ work in my life.

Roti Sosis Keju = Sausage & Cheese Bread

I have enough of making Indonesian cheesecake + pandan chiffon cake.. I only know these two particular cake to make, sometimes it's a success, but most of the time, the cake did not turn out so well, either it's the beating or folding the egg/batter, the cake become deflated in the process or the unmoulding part. Anyway, since I've bought a stand mixer a month ago, I want to bake more often so the pricey mixer will be worth it.

So I decided to try making bread. I adapted the recipe from Yossi's recipe in her blog. Yeye also shared her knowledge. I must admit though, making bread is really time consuming. A lot of proofing stages.. I think the whole process took me about 4 hours. As Yossi said, the recipe yielded 8 breads. If I don't have a stand mixer, I don't think I will make more of these. The dough was kneaded for about 30 mins using a mixer. Plus later on, the rolling the dough etc etc.


I think I put them in the oven for too long, or the temperature is too high. It's a little bit burned and quite crispy at the top part. :P But Richard and I really like it. We ate 4 of them shortly after the bread came out fresh from the oven.

A day with Jasmine

I still have 5 more months until I start my new job at Deloitte. So from now til then, I don't have specific things to do. Being a good and responsible housewife is of course my duty of all time. However, aside from keeping the house clean, preparing lunch and dinner and doing some admin/finance stuffs, I usually spend 80% of my time in front of my computer browsing here and there, and also watch TV and Netflix. I have prayed to God for wisdom to use my time effectively, however, if there's no one's asking for help or no pressure or anything like that, I am just busy with myself. I know that God has a purpose for me during this waiting period, but I am just too lazy to figure it out :(

Anyway, I thank God for the opportunity to babysit Jasmine yesterday. A long time ago, I told her mom that I would like to play with Jasmine one day. I like little kids. After a good friday service at my church, I casually talked with her mom, and somehow it happened that her mom asked if I would be willing to babysit Jasmine on Monday since her daycare is closed for Easter that day. Of course, I was more than happy to say yes. I babysat Jasmine from morning around 10am until 5 or so. She was being good, very easy to manage, and did not cry at all. Thank God!


God answered my prayer in one way or another. I used that day wisely :) What's better way to spend the day than to help a friend in need. Her mom wrote me a card that said I am an angel for her family in time of need. Hehehehe.. What a compliment! Thanks ci Elisse. It feels good that I can be a blessing for others.

H-1B filing Starts tomorrow!

I don't know what will happen to this year's quota. A lot of people said this year is going to be easy since the economy has not recovered yet, many companies still lay people off, more restrictions and audit on H1B, and so on. But who knows. Anything can happen. Just like few years ago. I experienced it once where I did not get the lottery. It felt awful to be the only one among my friends not to be selected on the lottery. Jealous? of course. But, inside me, I know God is in control. I don't know the future, but He knows. He holds my future. He knows clearly.

Looking back, I did not regret at all. I am grateful that I did not get the H1B 2 years ago. I am happy that I did not work at PwC as an auditor. Maybe I like tax better. I am thankful that I could go to Beijing to learn Mandarin and make new friends. I am happy that I could finish my Master full-time without going to work at the same time. I am happy I have already passed my CPA and finished all my Master's classes. And I am so blessed that because of H1-B issues, I got detoured to SanDisk where I met my future husband.

God knows His perfect timing.

Aloha Hawaii

We love hawaii!! Not only it's relaxing, but it offers breathtaking views of the beach, good hawaiian food & luau, and my favourite activity is none other than snorkeling, whale & dolphin watching. Their spam musubi is really good.. They also have spam+ cheese musubi, something that I've never think about to add cheese..and since I love cheese, when I make musubi now, I always add that to my musubi.. I know it adds extra calories.. but oh well.. We love the hotel too.. they upgraded our room to ocean view room.. Nice!

The amazing view from the hotel balcony

At paradise cove luau

One of my favourite food: Puka Dog - hawaiian style hot dog

This is the cheese musubi I'm talking about..

Our 2nd bible reading

We read the whole chapter 12, but these verses struck me:
Mark 12:28-33 (NIV version)

The Greatest Commandment

²⁸One of the teachers of the law came and heard them debating. Noticing that Jesus had given them a good answer, he asked him, "Of all the commandments, which is the most important?"

²⁹"The most important one," answered Jesus, "is this: 'Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one. ³⁰Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.' ³¹The second is this: 'Love your neighbor as yourself.' There is no commandment greater than these."

³²"Well said, teacher," the man replied. "You are right in saying that God is one and there is no other but him. ³³To love him with all your heart, with all your understanding and with all your strength, and to love your neighbor as yourself is more important than all burnt offerings and sacrifices."

Bimbimbap

Last week, I also made korean bimbimbap. it's mixed rice with vegetables. I don't know why but this week's theme is korean food. Usually I'm comfortable in cooking chinese and indonesian food. The bimbimbap recipe can be found here. It's easy to make, healthy and yummy, so you might want to try it out :)

Before adding the sunny side up egg

For the rice, instead of purely white rice, I mixed 2 cups of white rice and 1 cup of korean mixed grain rice that contains barley, brown rice, red bean, black bean, etc etc. It has more fiber and healthier. One thing though, I did not use ground beef per her recipe, but I made bulgogi instead. My sister gave me the recipe a long time ago from her friend, but I did not have the chance to try it until today.

Topped with sunny-side up egg before it get mixed around

Here's the recipe for bulgogi:
1 lb thin sliced bulgogi beef
3 Tb soy sauce
3 Tb sugar
1 Tb minced garlic
1 1/2 Tb cooking wine (white, sherry or mirin)
1 Tb orange juice or apple juice
1/2 ts ground sesame seed
1/2 ts black pepper
2 Tb green onions, chopped
1 Tb sesame oil

Mix all ingredients in a large bowl to make the marinade. Add the beef slices to the bowl and thoroughly coat.Let it sit in the fridge over night or at least 6 hours. On high heat, cook meat on a skillet or frying pan (no oil necessary) until meat is brown.

Korean Tofu Soup

I really like korean food especially their soft tofu soup and bulgogi. I also like kimbab (korean style sushi) while I was in beijing. Check it out here! My favorite Korean restaurant in the bay area is so gong dong tofu house at Milpitas. Their tofu soup is very rich, a lot of tofu, perfect flavor for my tastebud. They also give a lot of good appetizers such as tofu salad, seaweed, fish cake, kimchi, soft tofu. Anyway, the point here is, since eating out at Korean restaurant is kind of pricey, I decided to try cooking one for myself.

I got the recipe from here. I also added enoki mushroom. I think it's really delicious, almost the same taste as the one in Korean restaurant, even my hubby says so. Hehehe.

Reading the Bible

A few weeks after we got married and came back to the US, we have been reading the bible together. Then, we prayed for each other. But then, we stopped doing it because we prefer to browse internet or watch movie than read the bible. I remind myself that we should start again tomorrow and the next day, but, we never did :( It seems that our time did not fit, even though we were right next to each other -- I was too busy chatting/facebooking/watching Netflix and richard was taking a break after a long day at work. So I continually made excuses to God. Sorry God!

So yesterday, I made up my mind to start again. The first is always the hardest. Once it becomes a habit, it will be much easier and enjoyable. We continued on our reading at Mark 11. He read the odd verses and I read the even verses. To be honest, I really enjoyed reading the bible together with hubby. We connect more spiritually and to God. When we exchange prayer requests, I feel more intimate that not only he shares his feeling and thoughts and burdens, but I'm privileged to pray for him. I pray that God will give us the passion to know Him more and strengthen our marriage, to love each other, just like God has loved us first.

Some scripture that we read that I want to share with you:
Mark 11:24-25
²⁴Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask for in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours. ²⁵And when you stand praying, if you hold anything against anyone, forgive him, so that your Father in heaven may forgive you your sins."