A Wonderful Birthday

I was a happy happy birthday girl! I was giddy from all the love from family and friends on my birthday; receiving birthday calls, emails, wishes, cards and gifts!! **All Smiles** Thank you for all the wishes, the thoughtfulness and gifts…. You know who you are! For a moment, being 28 isn’t that bad after all!

Mom surprised me with a birthday call, a couple minutes after midnight. I was very touched with her effort to call me and wish me at that hour! =) Dad, brother, my in-laws also emailed/called the birthday girl!

Hubby surprised me (I love nice surprises!) early in the morning with stalks of beautiful red roses outside the bedroom, down the stairs leading towards the dining table where more surprise awaits me. More stalks of red roses await me along with a Birthday Mylar balloon awaits me, a box of yummilicious Godiva  chocolates, cards (one from hubby and one from Brady) and a Coach bag (which he got me last week and hid it all week long from me!) Hubby wanted to tie the balloon to Brady and sent him up to the room with it. Brady wasn’t too happy with a strange looking thing tied to the collar, so hubby took it off.I was lead to believe that it was going to be a dinner date at my favorite restaurant with hubby that evening to celebrate my birthday. I was wrong and surprised! =). My close friends, Seyda, Rob and Chris with hubby’s help snuck into the house to surprise me with a beautiful birthday cake and gifts! Everything worked out perfectly and just fell into place. I was in the shower and was dressing up for the date when my friends all so happen arrived and got into the house without my knowledge.

I came down upon hubby’s persuasion having me see what Brady’s done (after hearing a sound in the kitchen) to see a beautiful lit birthday cake and presents! Yay!!My dear friends were hiding in the kitchen to surprise me.My friends (who I nicknamed; the usual suspects) surely knows me well or maybe they are just trying to get me make more food for them when they gave me food related pressies! Cool ice cream bowls, ice cream recipe book, and a gift certificate to culinary class of my choice!!! =) I’m all hyped up about the delicious stuffs I could do with the gifts! My friends have also hinted that Sorbet would be a delicious summer treat for them! =). I would happily make it for them, no questions asked!

We then headed to my favorite seafood restaurant where hubby bought dinner; Naked Fish (reviews to come later) for some delicious seafood and Cuban cocktails! We got back to my place for some birthday cake for dessert!THANK YOU GUYS FOR EVERYTHING!

28 CANDLES

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO ME! =)

Family Vacation : Niagara Falls, ON, Canada

The best hotel throughout our whole trip was definitely Embassy Suites at Niagara Falls. It did cost us more than the other places we’ve stayed at… but the view of the Niagara Falls was worth every penny of it! Mom and Dad was definitely thrilled at the view from our hotel room. I was all smiles! Hehe! Pat on my back for making a reservation at this hotel. =)

The view of the falls from the top and from close up was simply magnificent. I will just keep this posting short ( less wordy), but loaded with pictures!

View from our hotel room @ Embassy Suites. Credits to my brother for taking these pictures with his dslr. Pictures on top, evening view. Bottom left; night view. Bottom right; @ sunrise.

 

Walking closer to the falls. Top left; American Falls & Bridal Veil. Top right; Horseshoe Falls. Bottom; close up pictures of the Horseshoe Falls.

And a little video of the Horseshoe Falls..

The following pictures are taken further away from the waterfalls. Left: Forgot what that was. Right: Flower Clock.

We stayed a night @ Niagara Falls and did a scenic drive along the river to Niagara-On-The-Lake stopping by at a Winery for some Canadian Ice Wine before heading back to USA.

PS: We dined at what I thought was the most expensive Friday’s joint! Although prices were in Canadian Dollars (the exchange rate is not significant), everything on the menu was twice the price at the Friday’s I’ve been to in the US. I suspect they are banking in on the unsuspicious tourists like us. I had thought the price difference would not be that vast, boy was I wrong! 3 entrees, 2 drinks rang up at about CAD$95. The lousy waitress we had made the dining experience more painful.=P

Raisin Cinnamon Bread Pudding

I had 2 loaves of Pepperidge Farm Raisin Cinnamon Swirl Bread, thanks to the “Buy One, Get One Free” offer from the local grocer. The bread consumption was rather slow in the household, so I decided to make some bread pudding with some of the bread we have. =). Dessert is always welcome in this household. =)

I ate the dessert both warm about 10-15 minutes after baking, and found it alright. I tried it again when it’s completely cooled down. It tasted much better as the whole pudding has also set properly! The almond topping gave a nice crunch to the moist custardy bread pudding! =) … This recipe here is like a cheat, since my bread already has all the raisins and cinnamon in it ..=P

RAISIN CINNAMON BREAD PUDDING RECIPE

Ingredients:

• 11-12 Slices Raisin Cinnamon Bread ( I used Pepperidge Farm Swirl Bread)
• 4 Extra Large Eggs ( or 5 Large Eggs)
• 1 Cup Heavy Cream
• 2/3 Cup Milk
• 1 Tsp Vanilla Essence
• 1/3 Cup + 2 Tbsp Sugar
• 1 Tbsp Butter
• 1/4 Cup Almond Slices (I love nuts….you could reduce this by half or omit this entirely)

Method:

Preheat oven @ 375F. Grease a 6 x 9 glass baking dish with butter. Cut bread slices into half, keeping crusts on. Arrange bread slices into glass pan so that it’s a compact. Fill gaps with pieces of bread if needed.

Add eggs, heavy cream, milk, vanilla essence and sugar into a large mixing bowl. Whisk all ingredients until well incorporated. Gradually pour custard mixture into the bread filled glass pan. Do it slowly, about 1/3 cup each time to allow bread to soak in the custard mixture. Gently push bread down with a spatula so that all bread is soaked with egg mixture. Top up remaining custard mixture to the rim of the pan. There might be some extra liquid.

Randomly dot the top of the bread with butter and sprinkle with almond slices. Place glass baking dish on a baking sheet (to catch any overflow) and bake in preheated oven for about 1 hour. Remove and let bread pudding cool and set before cutting into it! Bread pudding will puff up and almost double in size in the oven. It will then slowly “deflate” once you remove it from the oven.

You can serve the bread pudding both warm and cold. A scoop of vanilla ice cream would be delicious too! =)

Shanghai Nian Gao For Dinner…

It’s been gloomy all day today with occasional rain drops…… The best food remedy for such a cold, gloomy, icky day was definitely some HOT SOUPY STUFF!

For dinner, I made hubby and I a steamy bowl of Shanghai Nian Gao (Shanghai Rice Cakes) Soup each. Each bowl was generously topped with fish balls, fish cakes, Chinese Bok Choy, scrambled eggs and chopped cilantro for garnish. I bought frozen rice cake from the store which I then dump into my simmering broth for a couple minutes and added condiments to it. The end result, total yumminess and satisfaction ……. though the rice cake is slightly chewy. I still have about half a bag left which I could maybe use to do a stir-fry version later! =)