sjamesho.v3

okay… this is the last post of the three posts that had gotten away from me. even though it was ten days ago there hasn’t really been anything major going on between then and now so don’t worry, you’re not missing much… or maybe its me who is missing things to blog about? argh! oh well… here it goes.

11 Dec. the party/Bible study thing that i’m involved in, if you haven’t caught on already, is really model of sorts of small groups. so if you check out Acts 2:46-47, you’ll see the correlation. so this particular sunday of this month, it was time to throw yet another party. i like the word “party” but i think in the coming months we’re going to shift the event to a less frivolous tone in terminology but keeping the formula the same: food, fellowship, and the Word. but in my mind, the joy of “party” will still be alive.

sweet potato, watercress, and pear salad. i found this recipe as well as the combination interesting so i decided to try it out. it was okay, but i think it would have been a lot better had i given the pears enough time to ripen. also, this is the first time that i worked with watercress. i’ve had watercress before but only in small quantities. but since this recipe uses watercress as one of its three main ingredients, the flavor was strong and sharp. its not a bad flavor and had the pears been sweeter it and the sweet potatoes would have complemented the watercress nicely but since it wasn’t as ripe the balance was off. i had enough watercress left over to make it again which was better but i think that, unlike the “cranberry, apple and jicama salad”, its broad appeal index is not as high. i did notice that the flavors of this salad seem to be better the next day. it makes better as a leftover? go figure.

the bread was made and brought by Melinda Fletcher. quite tasty and quite photogenic! not only do i like eating bread but i like looking at their textures.

Left to right: Danette, Brian, Nana.

Left to right: Melinda, Heidi.

Left to right: Aiko, Michelle, Brittany. this time around Aiko presented the study. it’s a December month and typically the focus would be a Christmas theme… as in nativity and the like. but we’re not typical. so we took the theme of “Peace”, like “peace on earth” or “peace to all”, and examined how the world offers it against how Jesus offers it. there were many facets that were covered also but the bottomline is that Jesus came to this earth to bring us peace and provide deliverance from the chaos we bring upon ourselves. that deliverance is not that we are taken out of the chaos but we now have a Peace going through it… and that’s mind-blowing or as King James would say “passeth all understanding”.

Left to right: Nikki, Andrea. while we were eating, Nikki and Andrea was going over some childhood memories in grade school. there was a story about busted teeth and another about Heinz 57 that was very, very amusing. we had a very good laugh. i guess i can relate to you what i remember of the stories but it’s one of those “you-had-to-have-been-there” moments. ahhh… good times, good times.

so that’s it, i’m “caught” up. and like i said before, there hasn’t been anything major going on in the ten days between then and now so unless i feel really compelled to turn some small thing like a mole hill into a mountain, i’m just going to do my best to be more current.

aiya! once again, i’ve let the days go by without so much as small post. i could blame it on the season but i would just be making excuses. so with the last remaining week before i leave to India, i’m going to quickly let you in on what’s been happening… starting from three weeks ago.

09 Dec. my church had a Christmas dinner and entertainment that went by the name of Winter Wonderland. previous to this event there was a concert by Jaime Jorge also at my church so we had a lot of people from the concert that stayed for the dinner. how can anyone resist a free meal?

there was a lot of food which i will post later in my food section of photos. however these are just some of the yumminess that was experienced.

i had several people come up and ask me what i was doing. the obvious answer was “i’m taking pictures of food”. i find it interesting that although food plays a major part of the evening by everyone eating it, no one else bothered to take pictures of it. something delicious has just the same rights to have pictures taken of it as other things that took place during the Winter Wonderland.

the Winter Wonderland “area” was made up of borrowed Christmas from church members. i think my family’s is the one on the far right. i’m not too sure since we haven’t used it in years but it looks like it.

our church is one of the three entities that comprises the Milpitas Adventist Center. the other two are Discoveryland and Foothill Adventist Elementary (K-8). the kids you see in this picture are from Discoveryland right before they started singing.

i guess the Christmas theme wouldn’t be the same without the obligatory manger scene portrayed by Discoveryland kids.

towards the end there were appreciations that were given to the teachers and staff of both Foothill and Discoveryland. the evening ended with a video that i put together. taking pictures of a video presentation would be a little silly and besides i happened to be watching the video for things that i might have messed up on. so that’s it for now. i’ll be making another post tomorrow about the following day.

i have about 30 minutes before December so like i mentioned yesterday, i’m going to compress the rest of my November stories in this entry.

i’ve seen pomegranates. i’ve talked about pomegranates. i’ve had pomegranate juice. but somehow i had never eaten fresh pomegranates. so last tuesday (21 November) i had my opportunity and realized why my parents don’t bring pomegranates home to eat… they’re rather a messy and potentially staining fruit if you’re not careful. of course i knew this, but knowing a fact and experiencing the fact are two different things. i suppose that there are some things in this life that don’t need experiencing, however i figure eating one of God’s many fruits is something that just needs to be experienced. i must say, all messiness aside, that it is quite good! the next time i’ll wear something not so nice. thankfully i didn’t get any squirts on the shirt i was wearing when i ate it.

for Thanksgiving my mom and i drove to my dad’s place in Springville. some of my friends at work know that i’m a vegetarian and wondered what i ate for Thanksgiving since the day really isn’t a “turkey day” for me. and no i don’t eat tofurkey. i’m not sure whether i’ve ever had tofurkey. if i did, it must have either been unmemorable or so repulsive that i’ve blocked it from my mind. either way i just have to get this off my chest… i like my tofu as it should mostly be… in the Asian cuisine context and not used as a basis to fashion into a non-asian meat concoction. that being said, i don’t mind using tofu for fusion cuisine. but pretentious tofu is unacceptable. UNACCEPTABLE! if i want a meat substitute, i’ll use soy. after all that’s what tofu is made from. so… after running my mouth… the picture above was obviously my Thanksgiving dinner this year.

mashed potatoes, green beans, vege dinner roast, and cranberry, apple, jicama salad

my family had lunch at Don Vino’s Italian Bar & Grill on sunday before my mom and i headed back to Milpitas.

Don Vino’s

water

bread

after lunch, i realized that i had completely forgotten to take a picture of my eggplant panino. i’m guessing it was because i was so hungry and it was so yummy. i think i’ll have to make a return visit to Don Vino’s for that missed opportunity.

this month went as fast, if not faster, as i predicted at the start of November. in a mere two blinks, i had let 21 days go by without making a blog entry. so i’m going to quickly compress everything in two entries because i know December will be definitely coming fully loaded with happenings one right after the other.

last month’s Un-Halloween Party was so fun, that on 19 November we decided to do another party with a twist to Thanksgiving. well… not necessarily a twist but went with the importance of thankful attitude and the privileges and opportunities that arises in the Christian experience as opposed to the Pilgrim/American Indian theme.

i wish i had some food preparation photos to show you. i had to run errands most of the day with only about an hour to spare to get a haircut and make two dishes. so most of the other food was basically set to go by the time i arrived at Heidi’s house (which really the Gapasin’s house that Heidi is staying in). we moved it to this location since we were expecting more people this time around and my place isn’t that big for that capacity.

there’s a lot of things happening on my plate: rice, salad and a cranberry, apple, jicama salad on the left that i made for the first time. normally i try out my first attempts with my immediate family before releasing it to a larger group so i was a little nervous… and i guess a little brave… to share my discovery. thankfully (hehe), it turned out well as evidenced in a later photo.

with a couple of turns we see the delicious bread that Aiko brought and the stuffed shell pasta that Heidi’s mom made.

this time Heidi led out in the Bible study. i really like this party format where everyone gets together to eat a great meal and then having a different person lead out in facilitating.

Left to right: Thea, Nikki, Aiko, Moises.

as we were cleaning up the kitchen after the Bible study, Andrea thought the dressing of the salad i brought was too good to waste. so here she is sipping the remains out of the bowl as Aiko and i take her picture with Michelle and Danette looking on.

then on 21 November, i had Thanksgiving Dinner at Banana Leaf with some friends whom i’ve known since high school… that’s like 17 years and counting! in the past we’ve patronized Maggiano’s but having Malaysian food was a nice alternative. its always nice to mix things up.

roti prata

tofu salad

veggie pineapple fried rice

banana granite

my family likes coming to Banana Leaf because for one thing, its cheaper than flying back to Malaysia for Malaysian food. for the most part their food is closer than other restaurants claiming to be Malaysian cuisine. they have a substantial selection for vegetarians which is most often not the case for a Malaysian restaurant. the owners are Christians and play Christian instrumental music. though this is not apparent to most patrons, its a delightful surprise to those that know the tunes. and of course by being regular customers, we’ve established a rapport with the owners and manager. like Cheers, “sometimes you want to go where everybody knows your name / and they’re always glad you came / you wanna be where you can see / our troubles are all the same / you wanna be where everybody knows / your name”.

the following morning (which would be last Sunday), my parents took a quick trip to Loma Linda Market to get some soy-based vegetarian food products. i’m not really into vegetarian “versions” of meat because even though they are meatless, they have been processed into whatever form they are meant to resemble although they do come in handy for something quick. so while my parents went to the market i took that time to sleep in until we had to leave for the next birthday celebration which was lunch in Pasadena.

the birthday lunch celebrated my uncle Sam and aunt Joyce’s birthday since their birth dates fall within a week of each other. to my knowledge, the plan was to surprise my aunt Joyce since her birthday isn’t till this Friday. however she found out but played along anyways. so in thinking that we were the ones to surprise her, we were surprised to find out that she knew.

here’s another family picture and you will notice that there are some here that wasn’t there the night before. in fact there are a lot more. that’s because there are two families represented unlike the night before where it was just one: my uncle Sam’s (my mom’s brother) and my aunt Joyce’s. both are large families and you would’ve seen it larger had all members been present and accounted for.

but alas all fun and festivities must come to a finale. after the “see-you-laters” were said my parents and i left Pasadena and headed back to Springville. there really isn’t much more to say about a four hour drive to Springville but before we arrived we stopped at L & D Chinese Buffet in Porterville for dinner. its the standard fare of Chinese buffet with the food that you typically find except that the prices are very reasonable. i think it’s something like $5.95 lunch, $7.95 dinner. we ate, we dropped off my dad in Springville, and then my mom and i spent the next four hours to Milpitas. birthdays are fun, three birthdays are more fun, 16 hours of round trip driving… not so much, but well worth it to spend with family.

You can check out more pictures starting in the Dining Out section.