a huge milestone

for me it is! :) A huge milestone in the cooking world! Today is the first time ever I put my hands into making fried won ton. One of my favorite foods! Frankly, it turned out pretty good. ** a pat on my shoulder** :)

I never in my life thought i would make fried won ton. I mean ever... in my life. I remember thinking what a complicated thing it was and thought I would never be able to do it. I am talking about the won ton wrapping skill of course. Janet had tought me how to wrap them one time. I tried it and it didn't come out good. I thought i would never be able to do this. I didn't get the whole twisting the end part. And i am very impatient about the whole process.

Today, i finally took the plunge. I had wanted to make it a few months ago, but didn't get to it. The won ton wrap that i bought just sat in the fridge to rot. Last week, when I was at the Chinese grocery shop, I bought the won ton wrap again. This time I was so determined not to let the won ton wrap rot. So finally, I had the courage to make it and i am glad i did. I hit a huge milestone in the cooking world. I am sure my mom will be so proud of me! I am so proud of myself. Ok ok... I know what you are thinking. It's only fried won ton for god sake.. it is probably one of the easiest recipe in the Chinese menu. And here I am making such a big deal out of it. But you don't understand ppl;.. it's me we are talking about here! It's me people! Can you imagine me making fried won ton??? Patiently peeling shrimp shells, deveining and depooping them? FYi- I don't like to deal with shrimps due to the de-shell thingy fact alone. So it was indeed a huge milestone for me. To top it all off, the wrapping skill is impeccable. LOL....... you can see it for yourself!

They look pretty darn good, don't they? They do actually look like won tons! (Disclaimer note: if you see the ugly ones, chances are they are wrapped by John... ) :>

fyi- they are not burned. They just turned slightly darker than the usual color. They still taste very good. Just making sure the fillings are cooked through. One of my tactics. It was done on purpose on my behalf ;) No biggie. (at least that's my story and i am sticking to it)

In the tiny memory space that I have, I remember when I was younger, I watched my mom make something similar, the spring rolls. We would sit in the kitchen and my mom would teach me how to wrap them. I would be so happy when she made them because I love anything fried! Today, I am in the kitchen coaching my husband on how to wrap them. Ahh... I have grown up! I have indeed grown up.

A learning process....

More often than not, it's what you say you can do, not what you can do.

pictures from last night

Here are some pictures from last night:

Cannot believe this actually happened in our condo complex....

a close adventure

A close call! 2 people were shot in our condo complex and we missed it by a few seconds. In fact it happened almost in front of our eyes. Like most evenings, we headed out to the gym at around 7 something. On our way to my car, John heard several gun shots to which he thought there were balloons popping! I, as usual, totally oblivious of my surrounding, didn't hear anything! I suspected something happened when I saw a crowd of people standing on the sidewalk. So I was right. Something really did happen and it was major!

One of the onlooker told me that a guy shot his wife and then shot himself. The woman was seen running towards our building and ended up at our doorstep. She was shot, not sure how bad her condition was. We did see blood dripping along the path she ran. I guess, if we were to have left our door a few seconds late, we would have saw her at our doorstep. I guess the neighbors that live 2 doors from our unit, took her in. I believe when she was at our doorstep, we were still walking towards our car. Right now, the crime scene (the building next to us) is all taped up including our building because that's where she was rescued. The story is still developing, no one really knows the motive of the gun shots. Neighbors heard the woman screaming for help and several gun shots. They appear to be an older couple in their sixties. They were both now taken to the hospital. Not sure about their condition but many said the woman is doing fine. The neighbor that helped the woman is still being questioned, it's been more than 2 hours since it happened. It could have been us if we saw the woman at our doorsteps. We just missed her! Well, it would definitely not be a pleasant evening to witness it.

We just saw a brief news story about this incident on tv, ... and my car was on TV! The news reporter was standing about 10 feet from my car. It really was surprising to see this kind of thing happen in the heart of Valencia! John is very picky about the neighborhood we live in. He tries to avoid the "ghetto" area as he calls it. I teased him right after this incident, i guess things like that could happen anywhere, doesn't matter if you are in Valencia, Newhall or Canyon Country. Our neighbor was telling us, this is the first time this has ever happened in this complex since he lived here. It's our luck to encounter this during our 6 months stay here. We moved here around Feb of this year and hopefully will be able to move out soon!

Can't wait to find out the reason behind the shootings. Hopefully there will be more news about it tomorrow. Needless to say, we didn't make it to the gym. We cannot even get out of our unit now. It is all taped up. It was sure an interesting evening. We took a few pictures with our camera phone, even the bloody spots! They didn't come out as good though. I'll post some pictures up when I get a chance.

***LATEST UPDATE***
http://www.the-signal.com/news/article/17168/

I heart Hollywood Bowl!

I know... i have been hiatus for a while but hey I am back! So what brought me back...? The Hollywood Bowl! I love that place. We just got back from a concert. The Diana Krall and the LA Philharmonic team. It was an awesome performance but it was the environment & the experience that makes it even better.

Hollywood Bowl is an outdoor concert place, which makes it a perfect venue for summer nights in LA. This was my 2nd time there in this month. Yes, the first time, the company had a ladies night where 8 of the fortunate ladies got to go. It was a coincidence that it was on my birthday eve. :)) So I had 7 other gorgeous ladies celebrating my early birthday with me. We saw Herbie Hancock and Lang Lang performance. The girls celebrated my 29th birthday with some birthday cupcakes, wine, cheese, chocolates... and champagne toasts. Yep... the most appealing reason of Hollywood Bowl is you are able to bring food & beverages into this outdoor concert. Including alcohol! Bring your picnic box with you and a bottle of wine. Enjoy the rest of the night gazing at the stars & listen to the amazingly talented performers.

So since I enjoyed it so much the 1st time, they offered me another 2 free tickets for me to bring John with me. It was supposed to be the Engineering Dept. event, but I guess many cannot make it and I lucked out ;) 2 free tickets with no plans on a friday night? Why not, right? I would be a fool if I passed that up. We drove to LA Zoo, and took the shuttle that will take us straight to Hollywood Bowl so we don;t have to deal with the hassle with parking there. They stack park there. That means, you would have to wait till the people who parked in front of you to get out before you. We decided to park at the LA Zoo since parking at the LA zoo is free and the round trip shuttle only cost $4 per person. It seems like the best option for us. Plus, the first time i was there with the girls, we did the shuttle and had no problem with it at all.

We had an enjoyable time with my co workers tonight. We brought a bottle of wine & cheese cake to share. Everyone brought something to share as well. Napkins, wine bottle opener, paper plates, plastic cups complete our night!

We went not so much for the performers, it's more because of the environment and the experience! And of course the performers didn't disappoint us at all! Icing on the cake...... ahhh....! Such a romantic night to spend with the mister.. :)

Since our camera broke and we haven't got a new camera yet, we have to settle with our little blackberry camera:

a picture the mister took of me

we had awesome seats!