Gung Hay Fat Choy

It's been a busy few days since I posted last.

I've been trying out some different knitting patterns. Hopefully soon I will unveil a few of the finished projects.

Here is a sneak peek at one of my "works in progress".

  It is a little baby cap.

I've also been busy making and cancelling appointments. Don't you hate it when you wait for an event and the hosts/organizers cancel?  This has happened twice this past weekend for two events I was looking forward to later in the month.  On the other hand, that is probably just what I needed right now so I can catch up on things around the house and all the budgetary matters (bill payments and tax issues).

On Thursday night, I did get together with 3 people I know and 23 more that I didn't.  My friend who is an acupuncture doctor organized a dinner for the Chinese New Year; which this year, is called, the Year of the Dragon.  Chinese New Year actually started on Monday but we had our dinner on Thursday night to avoid the crowds.

Chinese New Year is the most important of the traditional Chinese holidays. In China, it is known as "Spring Festival," the literal translation of the Chinese name 春節 (Pinyin: Chūnjié), since the spring season in Chinese calendar starts with lichun, the first solar term in a Chinese calendar year. It marks the end of the winter season, analogous to the Western Carnival. The festival begins on the first day of the first month (Chinese: 正月; pinyin: Zhēngyuè) in the traditional Chinese calendar and ends with Lantern Festival which is on the 15th day. Chinese New Year's Eve, a day where Chinese families gather for their annual reunion dinner, is known as Chúxī (除夕) or "Eve of the Passing Year." Because the Chinese calendar is lunisolar, the Chinese New Year is often referred to as the "Lunar New Year"....

According to tales and legends, the beginning of Chinese New Year started with the fight against a mythical beast called the Nian (Chinese: 年; pinyin: Nián). Nian would come on the first day of New Year to eat livestock, crops, and even villagers, especially children. To protect themselves, the villagers would put food in front of their doors at the beginning of every year. It was believed that after the Nian ate the food they prepared, it wouldn’t attack any more people. One time, people saw that the Nian was scared away by a little child wearing red. The villagers then understood that the Nian was afraid of the color red. Hence, every time when the New Year was about to come, the villagers would hang red lanterns and red spring scrolls on windows and doors. People also used firecrackers to frighten away the Nian. From then on, Nian never came to the village again. The Nian was eventually captured by Hongjun Laozu, an ancient Taoist monk. The Nian became Hongjun Laozu's mount. (Source: Wikipedia)

With such a large group of diners, we ended up sitting at 4 different tables. There were 9 at my table. On my left were Madeline and her husband Alfred, an elderly couple. Alfred is blind so I helped him by explaining the various dishes that we were being served and by making sure he had enough to eat. On the right of me were two women, Freida and Suzette, who are now Canadian citizens but  originate from Texas.  Freida hosts a radio program on international women's issues and Suzette is a gardener.  Across from me sat a man whose name escapes me though I've met him before and his wife, Victoria. The  man is originally from Tehran, Iran and his wife is Canadian. They recently closed down their restaurant business which is too bad since their food was very good.  It is very difficult to make a go of a restaurant in this city and so many of them close every year. Fortunately the couple each has other work.  Rounding out the table were two women, Bernadette, who works at one of the larger local grocery stores and Trudy,who I think lives in my acupuncture doctor's building.  The entire group was friendly.  There was not a quiet moment or lull in the conversation.

It was my first time at this particular restaurant and besides very tasty food, it was also very good value for money.  Unfortunately I forgot to take photos of the food until we were almost finished.

This photo was taken near the end of our meal. The green beans to the left and the chicken cashew to the right, were two of my favourite dishes.

The restaurant, Szechuan Chili Restaurant, is a humble restaurant tucked away in a corner of a small strip mall on a busy street. It is not a place, I would normally pass on my way to anywhere so I was happy to try it. I'm always open to new places to eat especially when I'm with such a large group of people.

Our menu consisted of:  spring rolls, deep fried wonton, Szechuan Chili Dry Ginger Beef, Breaded Lemon Chicken, Mixed Four Kind of Vegetables, Deluxe Orange Peel Chicken, Fried Green Been Szechuan Style, Sweet and Sour Pork, Chicken Chow Mein and BBQ Pork & Shrimp Fried Rice. To top it off it was suggested that we order two more dishes to make sure we had enough to eat. So a few of the ladies ordered for the rest of us and decided upon Diced Chicken with Cashew Nut and a prawn dish which was loaded with vegetables.  I would say that every dish was great but I especially loved the vegetable dishes and the green bean dish. Lemon Chicken seems to be extremely popular because by the time it got to Freida and I there was not much left. Nonetheless, I did not go hungry. In fact, I could not partake of the Dry Ginger Beef or the Orange Peel Chicken which are the two dishes that arrived last.

It turns out that Alfred's favourite dish is Chili Dry Ginger Beef.  So we gladly had it wrapped up along with the remaining rice and vegetables for he and Madeline to eat later.

I would like to end with another quote from a well known, Canadian financial expert

... Chinese Dragons, unlike western dragons, are benevolent creatures. They offer you the chance to reach for the brass ring, to dream, and to make your dreams come true. Spring is particularly important to the Dragon, so what you put in motion in this spring will carry you through the year.

Lest you think Lucky is all in the mind, let me point you to a stody done by a Professor Richard Wiseman at Britain’s University of Hertfordshire who studied lucky people for ten years. He found that folks who feel lucky do differ from those who do not, but not because of some outside force. It turns out that “lucky” people pay more attention to their surroundings, are more extroverted and open-minded and are optimist. Since the soul of “luck” is opportunity, the more opportunity you encounter, and the more willing you are to see that opportunity, the luckier you will be. (Source Gail Vaz-Oxlade)

Gung Hay Fat Choy!

(Best Wishes and Congratulations. Have a prosperous and good year!)

P.S. If you missed my post on the appeal for Jeremiah, please read here.

Urgent Appeal

Dear Friends,

We have an urgent appeal for a young student, named Jeremiah Lokol who lives on the border between Turkana and Pokot areas; one of the poorest parts of Kenya. I met him in September when I was on a food relief mission to the people in that area.

Turkana people waiting for food relief

Jeremiah

Jeremiah has just been accepted to the top school in the country and this has made my day with this news.  But he needs tuition and school uniform costs in a matter of days (by the end of this month) so I am making an URGENT appeal to everyone.

Sadly, everything that Jeremiah's family had was stolen by their neighbours just around the time the parents were planning to sell some cows and goats to pay for his education. Some of you will know that in this area the people are pastoralists and they suffer from cattle raiding.

Standing with some Turkana women holding their water cans.

As the boy comes from a family of  9, it looks like his dream of attending the school which is located in Kikuyu town near Nairobi, might not become a reality. He might lose the chance of joining this great school and achieving his dream of becoming a pilot after finishing high school.

What we need to do is gather everyone's support to ensure he can go to school. He needs everyone's support to make this possible.

The fees and costs for term one are 24,943 Kenyan shillings ( $304 Canadian, $275 Australian, $292 US, 222 Euros, 187 GBP) There are additional costs of 6695 Kenyan shillings for school uniforms ( $81 Canadian, $74 Australian, $78 US, 60 Euros, 50 GBP and some modest amount for travelling to the school and making sure he has the other clothing and bedding he needs.

I am praying to God for someone to come forward and answer the prayers for this family and this boy.

Please pray with us and help to raise awareness of the Missions of Hope by using the share buttons at the bottom of this post. If you can do more than pray, please donate now at the donate button on the upper right of this website.

If you have any problem with the Pay Pal button you can send the donation to kerichojoy[at]gmail.com Thank you and may God bless you.

Jonah

What's Happening in My World?

We had another major storm pass through on the weekend. The winds were howling for two nights. I saw on the news that ferries serving the islands off of Vancouver were shut down due to the bad weather and power was knocked out in many places.  I was snug inside and safe from the storms. I was blessed that my power didn't go out at all.

The small amount of snow we had was washed away by the rains and the temperature has warmed up considerably.  I spent the blustery day yesterday making progress on  my goals.

One goal is to finish the baby afghan. I had started out making dishcloth squares in a new-to-me pattern.  One of the ladies in my knitting group suggested I sew them altogether into a baby afghan and I thought that was a great idea. I made about half of the squares last Fall and finished the other squares today. I just have to decide on which colour to use to crochet all these squares together with and I'm leaning toward a cream colour. I also like the blue in the yarn.

I am still a newbie knitter and have only made dishcloths and slippers. I needed to make enough of these squares to practice the stitches but I see I still need more practice*smile.

I also started my second paper book over the weekend (I have a few electronic ones on the go) entitled, Paris, 1919 by Margaret MacMillan.   This one I've had in my library for awhile now and thought I'd better get at it.

Margaret MacMillan's Paris 1919 is a colourful, epic history of the momentous days after World War I that saw U.S. President Woodrow Wilson and the other Allied leaders reshape the world. Wilson arrived in France to referee the Paris Peace Conference only a month after the war's end, sailing into a French port past an avenue of British, U.S., and French battleships. The world, horrified by the millions of war deaths, was desperate for peace and embraced Wilson's call for a League of Nations and self-determination for all peoples. Enthusiastic European crowds greeted the U.S. president and posters bearing his face lined the streets.

It was a conference unlike any other in history: attendees redrew borders, rewrote international relations, and tried--unsuccessfully--to contain German militarism. It unfolded in the midst of massive social upheaval as Europeans awoke to widespread hunger and the inequalities of their age. In the pressure cooker of Paris, this bubbling stew of social and political forces boiled over, and many of Wilson's dreams were dashed. The world lives with the legacy of these few months. Not only did the conference produce a new map of Europe and the Middle East, it led to the infamous Versailles Treaty, often blamed for provoking World War II. MacMillan, a University of Toronto history professor, argues that the Allied leaders did their best, and to blame World War II on them is to absolve Hitler and his appeasers. MacMillan could perhaps be accused of bias: her great-grandfather was British Prime Minister David Lloyd George, one of the main political players in 1919. However, her book has been acclaimed by historians and has won Britain's richest nonfiction award. Complete with backroom intrigue, personal drama, and vivid characters, Paris 1919 is a vital contribution to our understanding of the last century and the current one. (Source: Amazon).

I picked this book up several years ago because I was fascinated to learn that political leaders of the day redrew borders. I didn't learn this in history class. I'm not sure why I waited so long to begin reading it other than I have so many books in my library that I have yet to read and this is just another one. I'm sure I will learn a lot from it.

It's great to feel like I'm making progress on my goals for the year.

Having goals helps keep me focussed on the things I want to do and gives structure to my time.

How about you dear reader? Are you making progress on your goals for 2012?

Click on the badge and join in to see what others are doing around the world.

Basic White Bread

I'm still looking for my favourite bread recipe. One day, I will try making artisan bread because I love crunchy, chewy bread.  For now I am still making the traditional bread loaves and experimenting with different recipes. I often substitute whole wheat or multi-grain flour for some of the white flour in the recipes because of my diabetes.  But in this batch, I only used unbleached white flour. The recipe is from the Robin Hood (maker of flour) website.

Ingredients:

1 tsp (5 mL) sugar
1/2 cup (125 mL) water, warm
1 envelope (8 g) active dry yeast (2 1/4 tsp/11 mL)
1 cup (250 mL) milk
2 tbsp (30 mL) butter or margarine
2 tbsp (30 mL) sugar
1 1/2 tsp (7 mL) salt
1/2 cup (125 mL) water, warm
5 1/2 cups (1375 mL) white flour

Directions:

1. DISSOLVE 1 teaspoon (5 mL) sugar in 1/2 cup (125 mL) warm water in large bowl. Sprinkle in yeast. Let stand 10 minutes, then stir well.
2. HEAT milk to lukewarm. Stir in butter, 2 tablespoons (30 mL) sugar, salt and 1/2 cup (125 mL) warm water. Add milk mixture and 2 cups (500 mL) white flour to dissolved yeast mixture. Beat with wooden spoon or electric mixer until smooth and elastic.
3. STIR IN 2 1/2 cups (625 mL) of remaining flour gradually. If necessary, add more flour to make a soft dough which leaves sides of bowl. Turn out on floured board. Round up into a ball.
4. KNEAD dough, adding more flour as necessary, until dough is smooth, elastic and no longer sticky (about 10 minutes).
5. PLACE in lightly greased bowl. Turn dough to greased top. Cover with greased waxed paper and tea towel.
6. LET RISE in warm place (75°-85°F/24°-29°C) until doubled (45-60 minutes).
7. PUNCH DOWN. Turn out onto lightly floured board and divide into 2 equal portions. Cover and let rest for 10 minutes.
8. SHAPE each portion into a loaf. Place seam side down in 2 greased 8 1/2" x 4 1/2" x 2 3/4" (1.5 L) loaf pans. Cover with tea towel.

The bread dough is ready for it's second rise.  I guess I could have made the loves nice and neat and smoother but I think these will taste the same *wink.

9. LET RISE in warm place until dough rises 1 1/2" (3 cm) above top of pan in centre and corners are filled (45 to 60 minutes).
10. BAKE at 400°F (200°C) on lower oven rack for 25 to 30 minutes. Remove from pans immediately. Brush top crust with butter if a soft crust is desired. Cool on wire racks.
11. QUICK NOTE: This recipe makes 2 loaves. You can double the recipe to make 4 loaves.

Cooling the bread. I think it turned out nicely. I gave it a taste test after cooling.
The bread was delicious. It was also soft and moist without being full of air.

Nutritional Information
Servings Per Recipe	8
Per 2 slices (85 g)
Calories	214
Protein	6.9 g
Fat	3.4 g
Saturated Fat	1.9 gm
Carbohydrate	38.9 g
Fibre	1.1 g
Sodium	451 mg
Cholesterol	8 mg
Vitamin A	3 %DV
Vitamin C	0 %DV
Calcium	0 %DV
Iron	12 %DV

 
These did not last very long because the loaves were small. I also made two larger, multi-grain loaves later in the week. Those will last a little longer.

How about you dear reader?
Do you have an easy bread recipe that you believe is tried and true?
I'd love to hear about it.

Baked Beans on a Cold Day

We had a storm overnight. The snow kept falling through the night. Though I see it didn't amount to a whole lot of snow on my patio, the snow did cause havoc on the highway. The sky is dreary and grey and it will start raining soon making the roads icy. The forecast is more rain over the weekend so it should melt all the ice and snow away over that time.

It was, in short, perfect weather for some baked beans. I don't make baked beans very often but I am committed to making and eating more "from scratch" dishes using pulses and grains. Often I use dried peas, lentils, kidney beans, garbanzo beans, barley, cous cous and bulgar.

For people with diabetes, consuming lentils, peas and beans helps control blood glucose management. Compared with some other carbohydrate sources, pulses have a lower glycemic index. Studies have also shown that consuming pulses can result in more stable blood glucose levels after meals.

Pulses are high in fiber and protein, low in fat and moderate in calories. One cup of cooked lentils or dry peas contains about half of the daily fiber recommendation for adults. Foods higher in fiber content usually help people feel “full” or satiated at mealtime.

 (Source: Wikipedia)

Here is the recipe for the baked beans.  I increased every ingredient by 2 1/2 times so that I would have leftovers. I served the beans with some very lean sausage tossed together in a fry pan with shredded savoy cabbage and a small amount of oil. The cabbage and sausage made a nice savoury counterpoint to the sweetness of the beans.

This was a tasty dinner.

Ingredients

• 2 cups navy beans
• 1/2 pound bacon
• 1 onion, finely diced
• 3 tablespoons molasses
• 2 teaspoons salt
• 1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper
• 1/4 teaspoon dry mustard
• 1/2 cup ketchup
• 1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
• 1/4 cup brown sugar

Directions

1. Soak beans overnight in cold water. Simmer the beans in the same water until tender, approximately 1 to 2 hours. Drain and reserve the liquid.
2. Preheat oven to 325 degrees F (165 degrees C).
3. Arrange the beans in a 2 quart bean pot or casserole dish by placing a portion of the beans in the bottom of dish, and layering them with bacon and onion.
4. In a saucepan, combine molasses, salt, pepper, dry mustard, ketchup, Worcestershire sauce and brown sugar. Bring the mixture to a boil and pour over beans. Pour in just enough of the reserved bean water to cover the beans. Cover the dish with a lid or aluminum foil.
5. Bake for 3 to 4 hours in the preheated oven, until beans are tender. Remove the lid about halfway through cooking, and add more liquid if necessary to prevent the beans from getting too dry. 

Notes:  I  soaked my beans for a day and half and boiled them in my rice cooker until they softened. I changed the water half way through as I've heard that this cuts the gas that is often a problem when eating beans.  This approach meant my beans were ready in half the time but I let them cook for 2.5 hours to make them nice and well done. I omitted the bacon because I was making sausage.

Enjoy!

'Twas a Busy Sky Day

On this particular day the skies were busy with planes and birds. Within a few seconds of taking my first photo, I spotted two planes in the air. I was also able to capture some seagulls perched on a building and others in flight. All in all, it was a great day for sky watching!

Can you spot the small plane in the sky?

I wonder where this commercial jet is going? I'd like to be going too.

Click here to sky watch with others from around the globe.

The Wealthy Barber Returns

Though the first two weeks of this month, I felt rather tired, I'm having a good week so far in this third week of January.  In the first half of the month, I did a lot of resting and didn't push myself  too much.  I used the time to think about different activities and events that I hope to take part in as part of moving forward in  my goals. I also used the time to continue treatment for my leg and to get myself organized.  My sleeping pattern got messed up in December and this continued into the month of January so I've been working on trying to improve that as well.  It takes me a long time to get back into a good sleep pattern once it's out of whack.  Probably because I suffer from a couple of sleep disorders. For those that don't suffer from sleep problems, give thanks for you are lucky! Sleep is so important not only to energy but to good health in general. When you don't have it, you surely miss it. 

A stunning scene greeted me early Tuesday evening when I took this photo.  Just a few minutes later, the sky became dark and the ski lights on the mountain were brightly shining. You can see them in the photo at the top of the mountain. Click to enlarge the photo.

Very recently we've had a "large-ish" snowfall so it gave me good excuse to stay indoors and try to catch up on cleaning; basic things like vacuuming, washing down the counters, laundry, baking, etc.  Daily tasks like this take me much longer these days and tire me out. It is tiring walking around on a painful leg but I am happy I can still walk around at all. I truly am.  I continue stretching and going to massage therapy though I've reduced the appointments from one hour to 30 minutes.  This way I can get a  few more appointments covered under my extended health insurance plan. I've also started drinking mangosteen juice for inflammation. I don't know if it works yet because it is a little too early to tell but it won't hurt to give it a try.

I'm taking the new year slowly.  I like what blogger, Melissa Tchieu, said to me a few posts ago.  She said "RESTFUL INCREASE is what you need to achieve this year."  I thought that was perceptive and also accurate. I will rest in God and give my progress up to Him as best I can.

One of my goals for this year is to read 24 books. I read 24 books last year and want to do the same this year. It isn't a lot of books as such, but it is a lot for me and I also want time to do other things as well.

The first book, I've read is entitled, "The Wealthy Barber Returns" by financial expert, David Chilton. I found the book funny and, at the same time, full of financial wisdom.  I actually enjoyed this book more than his first one because I think it is more accepting of the way people really are about their money. Chilton distills financial advice down to a few realistic steps that people can take to improve their financial situations. Much of the book covers ground that I've learned over the past decade or more, but it was still great to have a review.  There were also a few bits of information that were new to me and it is always good to learn something new.

David Chilton writes in an easy style that everyone can understand. For example, here is his opening to the chapter entitled "Emergency Funds"

MANY IDEAS IN THE WORLD of personal finance sound great in theory and appear to be logical and well thought through in books, but seldom work in real life.

 Exhibit one: emergency funds.

Financial writers love these things. And for good reason.  We live in unsettled and unpredictable economic times. Bad things happen. What idiot wouldn't recommend saving at least six to nine months of after-tax income to carry us through rough patches?

This idiot.

If you are intrigued and would like a review of this book, you can read one here. Not everyone likes the book and the reviews from ordinary people will give you a good sense of whether the book will appeal to you.

I picked the book up at half-price; a real bargain!  I thought I would give it to my nephew, the one I'm helping with his budget so he can finish the year at university.  After further thought, I decided he probably wouldn't read it so I'd better read it myself.  By the way, it looks like my nephew's money woes will be substantially alleviated by the news that he will receive a generous bursary. Once his funds arrive, I hope that we can sit down and go over his budget categories to allocate his funds, and ensure he stays on the right path.

I hope that you dear reader are also have a good start to the year and also time to reflect on how you want the year to unfold. Blessings as you move forward!