Fun morning out at the park

I've been taking and meaning to take the boys to the dog park for the longest time but I knew that I could not deal with my two boys by myself so I would have to wait for hubs to go with me. There us normally a lot of people/dogs at the park weekends hence we've not gone to the park yet. Since Stanley is so playful and gets so excited when he sees other dogs/people we do not really want to deal with that thus they have never gone to the dog park before.

SIL found a dog park by where she lives and she's been taking Sadie (her dog) there. I went there with SIL on Friday and told Aunt L about it. We decided to go there with all six dogs on Sunday morning so that the dogs can play together.

The dog park is not very big but is big enough and is fenced in good. The dogs can mingle and play together if they want and the most important thing is there is no one else there. Not many people use this park hence we feel like is our own personal dog park! :)

I've already taken my boys there twice this week and hopefully more to come since the weather has cooled down so much.Aunt L said we should make it a point to take all the dogs there every Sunday morning for a play date.

2009 Internation Quilt Festival

Hub's aunt that resides in Wisconsin had one of her photography picked to be shown in the International Quilt Festival that was held in Houston. Since she don't have any plans to come down yet she asked if we (me or aunt L) could go there and take photos of her photos and other photos there. I didn't agree to go straightaway because I didn't want to go there by myself to just take photos and I am not even interested in Quilts!



Anyway Aunt L thought that we should go for the Quilt festival Saturday evening and Uncle Richie (yes we drugged him with hubby got lucky because he had to work), Aunt L, SIL and me went to the quilt festival. That place was huge and filled with quilt lovers. We didn't go through everything because we were not really that interested but we were very impressed with some of the quilts there. Some of the quilt there was just so surreal and it actually looks like a picture instead of quilt.

Can you believe this is a quilt?

The cheapest quilt for sale was about $400 plus dollars! Even though they were beautiful but I just cannot play such money for a quilt. I really don't know how to appreciate quilt that much!. I think this was a great experience but I doubt that I would be interested in quilting at this moment.

Bak Kut Teh (Pork Bone Tea Soup)

When I was living in Malaysia I rarely eat Bak Kut Teh. If I'm lucky I would probably eat that about once a year. My last trip home I ate Bak Kut Teh once that's also because my relatives from Australia was there so I think that's the reason why we actually ate that (my parents don't really like to eat a lot of meaty dish).
For some reason I've been wanting to eat Bak Kut Teh for quite sometime now. I had cereal for breakfast today and I just decided that I'll take the stuff out from the freezer to make myself a wholesome pot of Bak Kut Teh since it was cool and rainy all day.

Bak Kut Teh

Ingredients:
1 pack of pre-packed Bak Kut Teh herbs
Handful of Goji Berries (Kei Chi)
6 bowls of water
2 garlic bulbs (skin peeled)
12 dried Shitake mushrooms (soaked and cut into halves)
A handful of tofu puffs

Seasoning:

2 tablespoons of soy sauce
1 teaspoon of dark soy sauce
1 tablespoon of oyster sauce
A few dashes of white pepper powder
Salt to taste

Condiment:

A handful (5-6) bird's eyes chilies
Soy Sauce
ABC dark Sweet Soy Sauce
Two Tablespoon of chopped fresh garlic

Method

Add in the water, garlic bulbs, pre-packed Bak Kut Teh herbs, pork ribs, mushrooms, tofu puffs and boils in low heat for about 1 - 2 hours. Add in the seasoning and boil for another 5 minutes. Serve hot.

Honestly my picture does no justice. It was steaming and I was starving so I was rushing to eat :P. I was surprise it tasted so good. I was leary about using my pre-pack Bak Kut Teh herbs because this one was really old. It was given to me by one of my friend before she left to go home. I've had it for more than 5 years and god knows how long she had it before but I am happy to say that it still taste so very good.

Oily Vegetables

Ingredients

Lettuce

Fried Onions (Shallots)/ chopped garlic

Method

Boil a pot of water and blanch lettuce. Pour fried shallots/garlic on top of the vegetable with about one tablespoon of oil.

P/s: I pour about half a bowl of oil in a bowl. I put chopped shallots/garlic in the bowl. Put in the bowl in microwave for about 4 minutes (depending on how many volt your microwave). Keep a close watch on your onions/garlic. Shallot takes a longer time to get crispy while garlic browns much quicker so after the 4 minutes nuke it 30-45 seconds each time but watch it closely so it doesn't burn. My shallot burned because I was not watching it.

I was preparing dinner so I didn't watch the onions so mine got burned a little. The next day I fried some chopped garlic in the microwave again so I used fried garlic on my vegetable the next day. I purposely fried extra garlic so that I could sprinkle some on my rice. I guess vampires was afraid of me since I was consuming all the garlic!LOL

I had Bak Kut Teh for dinner, brunch and dinner the next day and brunch again the follow day after. My Bak Kut Teh is all gone now..slurrppp....Hubby likes the soup but he didn't like the ribs.He suggested that I use pork roast next time when I make this!I'm just dumb-founded with his suggestions sometimes.I wonder whether will pork roast actually works?

Milo might be sick.............*Updated*

Milo was fine all day yesterday but when it was time to go to bed Milo started acting funny. First I toss the blanket over him like I always do every night to make him move he started to yelp. Then when I wanted to touch him he'll yelp and growl after that I would touch him again he seems fine. I examined him yesterday and I didn't see any scratches or hot spots or anything. At first I assumed that he had a hot spot because the last time when he had hot spot he was fine all afternoon but when I touch him later he was yelping and I found out that he had a patch of hot spot.
I thought he might have broken bones or anything like that because hubby accidentally stepped on his paw last night but he was fine after that jumping around and running around so I don't think that he has a broken bone.

He was yelping here and there all night long. He was sleeping on my pillow and I was just moving the blanket several times and he just yelped. He looked like he was jumping the bed just fine although not as fast as he used to be.

This morning when I tried to pat his head he yelped really loud and was trying to nip me. When I touched it again after that he was fine and I could not see anything wrong with his head/ears. I am so worried and I quickly called the vet's office. They don't even know what's going on with Milo. I don't even know what's going on with Milo so I cannot even google it to find out. The Vet said I should just monitor him and take him in if anything happens. I could drop him off at the vet and let them monitor them but if he's not showing any sign on exactly where he's hurting they cannot do anything too and I would just end up being slap with a few hundred dollar bills for test and stuff plus they might still not being able to find out what happen to him. Uncle Richie said that all I could do is just monitor him because even if I drop him off at the vet they would do the same thing.

I am worried seeing my poor baby but I really don't know what going on. He's eating fine and he's running fine although not as quickly as he was. What should I do? Would you drop your pet off at the Vet?

*Update*** Milo is all better now..He's as hyper as he was before. He was being cranky or not so hyper the next two days too and has not been playing with dear Stanley but after that he's all better like before. Basically I really don't know what happened to him but I'm glad that I didn't have to fork out a couple hundred dollars but still good my hyper boy back..xoxo

Embarrassed !!!

I went to the store just now intending to buy some plastic totes to transfer some of the items we still have in card board boxes to totes because Uncle Richie said that card board boxes will attract silver fish. I hate silver fish because they will eat my nice clothes and sweater so I'm trying to eliminate card board boxes in my house to get ride of the silver fish. I didn't get the plastic totes though because they didn't have the size that I wanted that was supposed to be on sale.

Anyway I bought some other stuff and proceeded to go pay. When she was done ringing all my stuff I proceeded to swipe my credit card to pay for my merchandise. I swiped my card and was about to sign the machine but the cashier told me that my card was denied but she told me to swipe again and it was declined again!!OMGawd!!What happened I asked myself. So the cashier asked if I had another card which I had but I was so shocked that I didn't even know which card to use. I was stumbling to think which other card I wanted to use and then paid for my purchases.

As soon as I left the cashier; while going to my car I straightaway called the credit card company. I was upset because I knew that my card was not denied because we didn't make any payment or we over use our card and I could not think of another reason why my card was denied. I told customer service that I was about to use my card a minute ago and they told me that my card was denied. I wanted to know the reason why my card was denied because I'm up to date on my payment and it was really embarrassing to get my card denied!

Customer Service said that someone got the hold of my credit card number and made some charges on my card. They are not going to charge me for the purchases made by them. They have decided to shut down my credit card and will send me a new card. We are going to get a whole new account etc. I was shocked when I was listening to her because everything happened so fast. They claimed that they tried to call me yesterday which I think they did but they did not leave any message on my phone. I normally don't answer calls that I don't recognize the number that's why I didn't answer their call (if it was them anyway).

At least I know what is going on but I cannot help feeling so embarrassed. I think the cashier was thinking if you don't have money you should not be buying stuff!

I love presents!

I blog hop here and there when I have time and I see that there is a lot of blogs out there that have giveaway. I've never joined any giveaway because I don't think that I'm lucky enough to win anything. Anyway I've join some giveaway on a couple of blogs that I happen to stumbled upon just because I thought I'll try my luck and hopefully some time I would be able to win something.

Anyway I was surprise to receive an email from barb that I won Prize Pack from Victoria Hill Farm. I was really happy because this is the first time I actually won something without really doing anything. Thanks Barb!
I am very happy with my presents. Now I just have to make it to the store to get my free cookies. I told hubs I'm feeling lucky maybe I will win more goodies..

Chewy Chocolate Chip Cookies

Hubby has been hinting that he wants some chocolate chip cookies all day Sunday. Since I don't really like to bake during the weekend I told hubby that I will bake some for him this coming week (I didn't promise him when so he would hold me accountable for it :P if I didn't make it)

Chewy Chocolate Chip Cookies
Ingredients
2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup unsalted butter, melted
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
1/4 cup white sugar
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
1 egg
1 egg yolk
2 cups semisweet chocolate chips

Method
1. Preheat the oven to 325 degrees F (165 degrees C).
2. Sift together the flour, baking soda and salt; set aside.
3. In a medium bowl, cream together the melted butter, brown sugar and white sugar until well blended. Beat in the vanilla, egg, and egg yolk until light and creamy. Mix in the sifted ingredients until just blended. Stir in the chocolate chips by hand using a wooden spoon.
4. Refrigerate cookie dough for about 2 hrs.
5. Drop cookie dough 1/4 cup at a time onto cookie sheets. Cookies should be about 3 inches apart.
6. Bake for 13 to 15 minutes in the preheated oven, or until the edges are lightly toasted. Cool on baking sheets.

I decided to whip up some cookie dough so that I could bake some cookies just before hubby arrives home from work. I knew that he's going to want to eat some when he gets back from work and true enough he was more willing to skip dinner and just eat cookies.

Although I reduced the sugar from the original recipe I still found the cookies a little too sweet. I am not sure would it be because I used a cup of caramel chocolate chip(I think is much sweeter) and one cut of semi sweet chocolate chip but next time I make it again I think I'm going to need to reduce the sugar a little more if I want to eat some of the cookies myself because I dislike eating too sweet of a cookie.