Boston Pizza - Grandview Hwy

Website: http://www.bostonpizza.com/

Address: 2850 Bentall Street, Vancouver

Here we are once again at Boston Pizza. Why? Because it is CC's favorite restaurant. So after snowtubing, the 6 of us went for some good old Boston Pizza. I'm not a big fan of Boston Pizza, but on well, the company is much more important. We ordered so much stuff because everyone was famished, but the food disappeared before I had time to even whip out my camera. Anyways, I only managed to take two pictures. We started with the Boston's Pizza Bread. It was okay, I found it a bit too salty.

For one of the main, we had the BBQ chicken pizza. It was okay, nothing spectacular, just what you'd expect from Boston Pizza.

Thumbprint cookies

I'm not a big fan of cookies, but for some reason, I really wanted to try these shortbread thumbprint cookies. So I had some time one afternoon and I made these. They were pretty easy to tackle. I thought they were quite delicious, I enjoyed every bite. 

Click here for the recipe. I thought the recipe was just perfect, I didn't change a thing, not even the sugar amount.

  

 

Happy Baking!

Depth of the Sea

Sin is an interesting thing. No matter how long we've been a Christian or how strong our faith is, we've all struggled with sins. We all have areas of our life that we need to change and do better. We all strive to live out the love of God, we all try to put Jesus on the throne of our life, we all aim to resemble Jesus, but often we fail. We've succumbed to temptations, we've said or done things we are not proud of, we've felt the shame and frustrations of our mistakes, and we've come before God and repented over and over... It says in 1 John,

"If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness." 1 John 1:9

Sometimes though, even when we know God forgives us over and over, we just feel so ashamed by what we've said or done that we can't move on. I've been reminded by an article recently of the profoundness of God's love and forgiveness for us. I was quite encouraged by it and I wanted to share with you what I've learned. I thought it gave a wonderful illustration of the depth of God's forgiveness. It says in Micah,

"You will again have compassion on us; you will tread our sins underfoot and hurl all our iniquities into the depths of the sea." Micah 7:19

According to this, our sins are casted into the depth of the ocean. Have you ever wondered how deep the sea actually is? I have when I thought about this verse. According to wikipedia, the average depths of the earth's ocean is as follows; Arctic Ocean is 3,407 feet, Indian Ocean is 12,740 feet, Atlantic Ocean is 12,254 feet, and Pacific Ocean is 13,740 feet deep. The deepest part of Pacific Ocean is the Mariana Trench, and the deepest point of that trench is the Challenger Deep. It is 36,201 feet! Now, it's hard to grasp just how deep that is, so let's put that into perspective. The world's tallest tree is the Coast Redwood in California, it is 379 feet. It is just a size of a floating spec compared to Challenger Deep. The world's tallest building is Burj Dubai in Dubai, it is 2,684 feet. The Challenger Deep is more than 13 times higher than Burj Dubai. The world's highest mountain is Mount Everest. It is 29,035 feet. If we place Mount Everest into the Mariana Trench, there still would be 7,166 feet of water above it! In other words, even if our sins piled as high as Mount Everest, God's grace is still sufficient to cover us! Like the song East to West by Casting Crown says, we are drowning in His sea of forgetfulness.

Of course, I'm not suggesting that we should be abusing this grace that God gave us. Instead, we need to be reminded just how precious this grace is and how blessed we are to have received this grace. God calls us to come before Him and repent when we sin, what does that mean? It means we need to reflect on what we've done wrong, ask for forgiveness, and we need to make amends. Then we learn from our mistake and we need to move on. Often we become so distraught by what we've done wrong, or we feel so burdened by our guilt that we can't move on. It's like we are driving on a highway and we almost hit a deer. Then we spend rest of the drive looking in our review mirror thinking about the deer instead of looking forward to anything that's happening ahead. But God is telling us that we need to look ahead, and be on guard for any other deers that might run out. In other words, we need to stop looking back and starting looking forward to what's ahead. Paul reminded us in 2 Corinthians that we all have weaknesses and we've all sinned, but here is what God said:

"But he said to me, My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness. Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weakness, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me." 2 Corinthians 12:9

So let us praise God for His grace over us and let us rejoice in His forgiveness. It is through our weaknesses that His power rest upon us. Remember, God sees us beyond our sins, He sees us as who we can be, so now let us shine for Him!

Cattle Hot Pot

Address: 8391 Alexandra Road #1150
Website: http://www.cattlehotpot.com/

Once again NM and I met up in Richmond for some shopping and dining. There was a crazy sale at the Sportmart on No 3 Rd, so I went to check it out. I couldn't believe how cheap everything was, it was awesome. I bought all my snowboarding gear in one day! Anyways, after our crazy shopping, we were starving.  I've heard of a lot of good things about Cattle Hot Pot and it was nearby, so we had to go check it out.

The restaurant was quite large and with a ton of parking, so nice and convenient. The inside was nice and clean, and it was well decorated with unique pictures all along the walls.

MN and I were famished, so we went a little crazy with our food ordering. The soup base we chose was the dual mix, which is spicy on one side, chicken broth on the other. Although it was quite pricey, I was impressed with the amount of stuff in the soup. I am a huge wimp when it comes to spicy stuff, so I can't comment on the spicy soup, but the chicken broth soup was delicious.

We started with wontons, two types of mushrooms, and taro noodles.

We also had shrimp and spinach.

Of course, hot pot is not complete without the beef. On the side is the baby Bok Choy.

Just an additional picture of steaming hot pot!

 

The pictures do not do justice for how much we ate. We finished everything you see on this post. It was delicious, but it came with a price. I was so stuffed I couldn't eat dinner that night nor breakfast the next morning...lol. Overall, I would definitely recommend this restaurant to hot pot lovers. Beware, it is definitely pricey and hard on your wallet.

The lost sheeps...

"The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want. He makes me lie down in green pastures. He leads me beside still waters. He restores my soul. He leads me in paths of righteousness for his name's sake. Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me; your rod and your staff, they comfort me." Psalm 23:1-4

These verses are one of my favorite verses of all time because they provide a very visual picture of how God cares for us. When I read this verse, it calms my fear of the uncertainty in the future because I know my God is with me and I have nothing to fear. When I'm exhausted and frustrated by the circumstances around me, I can come before Him and He will give me rest.

Recently, I've been thinking a lot about this verse. I wondered why Jesus called Himself the shepherd and we are called the sheep. I mean what particular qualities of the sheep do we resemble? So I did a bit of research on sheep, and when I say research, I mean I "wikipedia" it, lol. Anyways, through my research, I realized how sheep-like we really are. First of all, did you know that sheep has no sense of direction? Apparently, they can't move from one grazing area to another grazing area without guidance. So even if there is nothing left in the current grazing area, they aren't not able to migrate to another area on their own. Also, if a sheep is lost, it won't be able to find its own way back. We are often lost in life just like these sheep. We don't know what we are doing half of the time, we don't know what's going to happen in the future, we don't know why things happen the way they do...sometimes we just go around in circles trying to find our way. We all have the intentions of doing good, but a lot of times we fail miserably. The good news is that we have a shepherd that knows the way. We have a shepherd who loves us and wants to guide us to the green pastures. In Him we can find rest and in Him we don't have to fear.

"Then he led out his people like sheep and guided them in the wilderness like a flock. He led them in safety, so that they were not afraid..." Psalm 78:52-53

The other interesting thing about sheep is that they don't like going uphill. Apparently, sheep become very nervous when they have to go uphill because they can't see what's ahead. So if a shepherd need to guide the sheep uphill to a fresh pasture, it takes a lot of effort and patience. Even if the fresh pasture right over the hill, the sheep will choose to remain in the dried up land in order to avoid going uphill. This is the same for us. Let's face it, we are not a big fan of going uphill physically or in life. Going uphill is painful and tiring, and it's hard to see the reward at the end. We like our life easy, we prefer the flat plain over the up and downs of the hills. We don't like being on the roller coaster of life, we don't like facing difficult decisions, we don't like painful losses, we don't like facing trials... But often, it is only after we faced and persevered through a trial that we can grow and learn. In other words, sometimes it's only when we reach the top of the hill that we can see that beautiful green pasture. Only when we get to the top of the hill and look around, we realize why we were forced to go through all that pain and fear.

"No discipline seems pleasant at the time, but painful. Later on, however, it produces a harvest of righteousness and peace for those who have been trained by it." Hebrews 12:11

Finally, I learned that sheep cannot turn around on its own once it has fallen on its back. It is stuck with its feet in the air, and over time, its circulation is slowly cut off. Without the help of a shepherd turning it on its legs, it will eventually die from the lack of circulation. In this culture of self proficiency, we are taught that we can do anything we put our mind to. This is true sometimes, but other times, even when we try our hardest, we still can't do it. We are taught to rely on ourselves, which can be a good thing, but we forget that a lot of time things are simply not in our control. We are like these sheep stuck with our feet in the air. We struggle to turn around and get up, but we just can't. The funny thing is, even when the shepherd comes along and try to help us onto our feet, but we push Him away thinking we could do it on our own. Then when we fail, we become so disappointed with ourselves, with our situation, with our mistakes... Yet, here we have a shepherd who is in control, He wants to help us, He asks us to rely on Him, He knows we can't do it on our own.

"Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light." Matthew 11:28-30

We as Christians, we are no longer the lost sheeps. We have a shepherd and He knows us by our name. Jesus said He is our shepherd and He would do anything for His sheeps. We protected under His power and His might. All we have to do is trust in our good shepherd. 

 "I am the good shepherd; I know my sheep and my sheep know me, just as the Father knows me and I know the Father, and I lay down my life for the sheep." John 10:14-15

Eye of God

Helix Nebula is a famous planetary formed at the end of one star's life. The beautiful planetary form we see here is dying star emitting different gas and dust, resulting in this unique shape and color. Because of its particular shape and colour, it has been nicknamed "the eye of God".

Of course Helix Nebula is not literally the eye of God, but it is a good reminder for us that God is looking down, He is gazing into our lives. A lot of times we are like children, we think just because we don't see God, He can't see us either. It's like kids playing peekaboo, all we are doing is covering our eyes, but God is still there. There is something comforting yet scary about being under the eyes of God all the time. It's comforting because we know that God is present in our life, He sees our circumstances and our frustrations, He knows it all. Especially when we are wrongly criticized or misunderstood, we know God saw our actions and our righteousness in that situation, and we can trust in His justice. A lot of times, all we need to do or can do is sit back and let God be the judge.

"For the eyes of the Lord range throughout the earth to strengthen those whose hearts are fully committed to him." Chronicles 16:9

On the other hand, it's scary to know that God sees everything in our life. We've all made many mistakes and we all have weaknesses that we don't want anyone to know. Sometimes we are so ashamed by our actions or words that we just wish no one saw or heard, especially God. But the truth is, God sees everything, He is ever present. We are naked in front of God, we have no where to hide. It's like in the garden of Eden, when Adam and Eve sinned, they tried to hide from God, but they couldn't. It's funny that many many generations later, we still have the same thinking, we still think we can hide our shame from God. The truth is, He sees all our mistakes, He knows all of our shortcomings, He sees and hears all of our actions and words, He knows our deepest and darkest secrets...scary isn't? But here is good news, He loves us, despite of all these. 

"But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ--by grace you have been saved--" Ephesians 2:4-5

Isn't it amazing? Even with all the wrongs we've done, God still loves us nonetheless. And even though we deserve the worst, His grace has given us the best. God sees us beyond our mistakes, He sees our potentials. He sees not just who we are, but who we can become.

Cattle Cafe in Burnaby

Address: 4885 Kingsway

MH came from Toronto for a visit and she wanted to meet up for dinner. Now, don't get me wrong, I love meeting up with MH, it's just that she is a very picky eater and she only eats Chinese food. So I had to pick a Chinese restaurant that allow MH to pick her own ingredients. The only place I thought of was Cattle Cafe. Cattle Cafe is known for their noodles, especially beef noodles. You can pick your own noodle, soup base, ingredients in the soup. It was the perfect restaurant for MH. 

Cattle Cafe is located right across from the Bay section of Metrotown. There is no parking for the restaurant, but you can just park at Metrotown. It is a very small little cafe with limited seating, we were basically squished by the door. 

Anyways, I picked the chicken broth as soup base, sliced beef and enoki mushroom, with rice noodle. It was pretty good, nothing spectacular though.

MH picked Szechuan spicy soup, sliced beef and white mushroom, with rice noodle. She said it was pretty good, looked too spicy for me though.
 

For drink, I had the HK style milk tea. It was pretty good.

Happy Ending

I've always been a big fan of happy endings, whether that's in books, movies, or TV. In fact, when I was a little girl, I used to read the ending of the books first to ensure that I won't be disappointed by the ending. Crazy right? Of course I don't do that anymore, but if I had a choice between a book with a happy ending or a book with a sad ending, I would gladly choose the happy ending book. In fact, even though I'm well advanced in age, lol, I still love watching Pixar animations. Why? Because with Pixar films, you are guaranteed a "happily ever after".

Most people I know have the same preference for happy endings, of course they may not be to the same extend as I am... Have you ever wondered why there is a general preference of happy endings in stories? Why is it that when a movie has a sad ending, we feel empty and disappointed? I think it's because happy endings give us hope. When we watch a movie or read a story, we sympathize with the main character's struggles, we see the character's endurance and perseverance, then we see them overcoming their struggles and live happily ever after. We sometimes see our life in parallel. Everyday we face different problems and different trials in life. Sometimes we become so frustrated with our problems that we can't see the light at the end of the tunnel. Watching or reading stories with happy endings give us the hope that we can too persevere through, and there is indeed a light at the end of that tunnel.

We all wish for happy endings in our life, we all want to hold onto that hope, but do you realize that we live with a happy ending? It's true, we as Christians, we live in a story with a happy ending! We already know the ending to our story. We already know God's promises. We already know what we have to look forward to. No matter how frustrated we may be with our current circumstances, no matter how crushed we may feel by our burdens, no matter how hopeless tomorrow may look, we know at the very end, it's going to be wonderful.

"He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away." Revelation 21:4

This is our happy ending, our something to look forward to. Here we are taking a part of a story that is full of hope and indescribable joy. So what does this mean for us who are struggling through trials right now? It means we need to hold onto that hope, we need to look ahead to the glory that's coming. Even in stories with a happy ending, there are little events and situations throughout the book that the character has to go through in order to learn and grow. Right now we are just plowing through. We also need to hold on tight to God's words. Sometimes we feel like we are just in this utter darkness and we can't find our way out. Well, the bible is like headlamps on a dark highway. Although we can't see what's at the end of the highway, we have just enough light to illuminate that 160 feet in front of us to guide us safely there. The bible gives us sneak peaks of what's to come, it's like getting glimpse of the end of the book, we already know what's going to happen.

"In my Father's house are many rooms, if it were not so, I would have told you. I am going there to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me so that you also may be where I am." John 14:2-3

Mini stuffed potatoes

For a potluck for work, I made these mini stuffed potatoes. They were delicious, small bite size goodness, but it was a lot of work and I probably won't do it again with such small potatoes. Maybe bigger potatoes next time.

Ingredients:
potatoes - cut in half
bacon
shredded cheese
miracle whip
green onion
salt
pepper

Directions:
1. bake the potatoes until they are soft.
2. scoop out the insides while reserving the shells
3. mix the potato inside with the rest of the ingredients.
4. scoop the mixture back in the the shells.
5. bake for 5 minutes.
6. enjoy these mini goodness.

Thanks for your help with these MH. Your stuffing is greatly appreciated. :D

Chocolate covered cheesecake bites

Over the Christmas period, I had almost 1-2 potluck every week. I made these cheesecake bites for a small potluck for work. They are quite simple to made, just a lot of work. But they are delicious and very cute, so I think they are worth the work.

Ingredients:
Any cake recipe
1 box of cream cheese
White and regular chocolate for melting

Directions:
1. Make your cake as per favorite recipe.
2. After the cake is done, crumble the cake and mix in the cream cheese.
3. Shape the mixture into small balls, then freeze them for 1 hr.
4. Melt your chocolates.
5. Roll the balls in the chocolate.
6. Decorate quickly as the chocolate will harden fast.

And you are done!

Unique like snowflakes!

Recently, quite a few of my friends announced their engagement, nine couples to be exact within 2 months. Majority of these couples have been dating for a long time, and majority are marrying their first love. I am so happy for each of these couples; I love hearing their stories of how they've met, fallen in love, and getting married. I am so thankful for all the wedding invitations, and I feel so blessed to to be invited to take a part on their special day.

Now out of these nine engaged couples, more than half are marrying their first boyfriend or girlfriend. They've met in high school or university, dated for a few years, now they are taking the next step in life together. As happy as I am for them, I can't help but wonder why some people fall in love just once and that's it, while other people have to go through heartbreaks and grieving before finally meeting the right person? I wrote a blog a while ago about how God uses heartbreaks to mold us into the person we need to become so we could fit with the person He has set aside for us... but it just seems like some people are not molded with these experiences and they are already in that particular shape to fit with the person they are to be with. They haven't gone through the pain or the frustration of a heartbreak. It just doesn't seem fair... 

God reminded me that He doesn't just use breakups to shape us into the person we need to be, He uses all relationships, circumstances, trials to mold us. For some of us it takes the pain of breakups for us to learn and grow, for others, it takes other trials to teach them what they need to learn. Sometimes we become so fixated on our own trials that we fail to see what others are going through. Or we compare what we've gone through to what other people are going through and think less of their trials. God is fair, He allows each one of us to experience different circumstances because each one of us are unique. Each one of us are like snowflakes, no two are the same. In order for a snowflake to be a particular shape, it depends on temperature, humidity, and air current. A combination of these factors at different times cause different shapes and sizes. This is the same for us. Different trials at different times affect each one of us differently. It will depend on many factors such as our maturity, our current circumstance, our resilience... we will never be able to fully understand the effect of a trial on a person, but God knows. In fact, He knows us better than we know ourselves. David wrote in Psalm:

"O Lord, you have searched me and you know me. You know when I sit and when I rise, you perceive my thoughts from afar. You discern my going out and my lying down; you are familiar with all my ways. Before a word is on my tongue you know it completely, O Lord." Psalm 139:1-4

Because God knows us so completely, He allows different trials to happen to us at different times to mold each one of us to His likeness. Therefore, we can't compare different trials to each other, because they are all effective in their own ways. I find it so amazing that God cares about us so much that even our trials are unique only to us. I don't know about you, but knowing that a trial is tailored to me gives me some peace and comfort. I know that when I persevere through, I am one step closer to His likeness and His glory.

"Bless is the man who perseveres under trial, because when he has stood the test, he will receive the crown of life that God has promised to those who love him." James 1:17 

"Although the Lord gives you the bread of adversity and the water of affliction, your teachers will be hidden no more; with your own eyes you will see them. Whether you turn to the right or to the left, your ears will hear a voice behind you, saying 'this is the way; walk in it'." Isaiah 30: 20-21

Blueberry Crumble Muffins

For Christmas, I made a batch of blueberry crumble muffins. I know it's not very "Christmasy", but we had some frozen blueberries in the fridge, I had to use them up, so please bear with me.

These blueberry muffins tasted pretty good, but they didn't look very good. My crumbles weren't very successful, they actually melted into the muffins, creating an orangy type of look. I need to figure out a way to make my crumbles stay crumbly. 

Anyways, if you are interested in the recipe, it can be found here. The only alteration I made to the recipe is that I omitted the cinnamon since I'm not a big fan of blueberry cinnamon combination.

Happy baking and eating!

Top Gun restaurant

Address: 4500 Kingsway, #2228

It's been a while since I met up with my girls, so the five of us finally planned a date and we went out together for dim sum. Now dim sum is notoriously known for bad service, and Top Gun wasn't any different. So if you want nice and quick service, you won't get that here. As for the food, I was quite impressived with the quality. My friend's comment summarized the whole expereince, "there sure was a lot of shrimps". It is definitely a bit on the pricey side, higher than other dim sums I've been to.

We started with shrimp cheong fun. It was delicious with nice big juicy shrimps.

Chiu-chao style dumplings (Chiu Chao fun gao). It was my first time eating this. Apparently it originated from the Chaozhou province. It was this dumpling thing with peanuts, garlic, chives, pork, dried shrimp, Chinese mushrooms in a thick dumpling wrapper made from glutinous rice flour. It looked very pretty, but I didn't like the taste very much.

These scallp dumplings were my favorite item here. The scallop on the top was perfect.

Of course we had to have fung zao (Chicken feet). Can't eat dim sum without the chicken feet. :D The fung zao here were okay, I've had better at other places.

Steam spareribs and beef tripe. I'm not a big fun of spareribs, so I won't comment on that. The beef tripe was mediocore, I was kind of disappointed. This normally is one of my favorite.

Beef balls. Not quite what I expected. I liked it nonetheless.

Crispy shrimp spring roll. IL highly recommended this, so we had to try it. It was absolutely delicious. Plenty of shrimp goodness in crispy spring roll wrap. I've never seen this at any other dim sum place, maybe it's Top Gun's specialty?

Of course, dim sum is not complete without hak gaw.



Then for dessert we had the sweet potato sticky rice cake. It was good, but the sweet potato taste wasn't very noticeable.

 Overall, we had a great time at Top Gun. I was quite impressed with the food, but it is definitely more pricey than other place. A side note for myself, another dim sum place with custard buns.

Of course, He loves me

At work the other day, I chatted with a patient regarding his home situation to facilitate his discharge planning. I asked my patient if he lives with his family, he said yes. So I asked him if they will be taking care of him at home when he is discharged. My patient said with such confidence, "of course, they love me." My heart was quite moved when I heard this. I think most of us can say this with confidence about our own family or friends. Isn't it great to have people around us that we trust? People who won't leave us to fend for ourselves? People who in times of trouble will step in and care for us? We are all so blessed to have these people in our life. But do you realize that we have a Lord that does the same? A Lord who leads us when we are lost, who comforts us when we are heartbroken, who carries us when we fall... Have you ever wondered how much He loves us? He loves us more than we could ever fathom.

"Do not fear, for I have redeemed you; I have summoned you by name; you are mine. When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and when you pass through the rivers, they will not sweep over you. When you walk through the fire, you will not be burned; the flames will not set you ablaze. For I am the LORD your God... Since you are precious and honored in my sight, and because I love you..." Isaiah 43:1-4

This is one of God's many promises to us. He promised that in times of trouble, He will protect us; even fire and water can not harm us. Why did He make such a promise? Because He loves us. So then why is it that when we need help, we desperately try to grab onto anything but God?  It's as if God is trying to pull us out of the water when we are drowning and we are still trying desperately to grab at the trees or floating wood pieces instead of holding onto Him. I am not saying that we shouldn't depend on our love ones for help, I think God places each one of us together to support each other and He calls us to do so, but I am just reminding myself and you that God is present, He is willing to listen because He loves us too. So let us not be afraid of praying, let us bring our thoughts and worries before Him, let us call upon His name, and He will rescue us.

"When he calls to me, I will answer him; I will be with him in trouble; I will rescue him and honor him." Psalm 91:15

We trust our family and friends to come to our rescue in times of trouble because they love us, but yet, we somehow forget the one person that truly have the power to help us and who love us more than anything. We need to have the confidence that God will take care of us too because He loves us. So next time when you are down in a slump and you are wondering if anyone is going to care for you, remember, "of course, He loves me".

Mini vanilla cupcakes

For the last day of my discovery class, I made mini vanilla cupcakes to celebrate. The recipe I used I've posted in my previous post, so I won't post again. But I just want to say that this is probably one of my favorite cake recipe; it is super easy to make and the cake is very moist. I just topped the cupcakes with buttercream frosting and sprinkles.