A change and A New House

Hello, remember me? I’m back with a new blog template and an attempt to liven this blog [once again]! Lately, I’ve been perusing many wonderful blogs to gather inspirations for the new home that we are building. With the building process whipping through so quickly, I have been pinning everything on my Pinterest boards so that I can virtually organized my ideas. I [LOVE] PINTEREST, but I’m afraid that the social hype will die out quickly -- another topic for another blog post.

Since this is my first time building a house with a home builder, I had to do extensive research on who I’m dealing with, and the process it takes once started to completion. I was told it will take 4 months from the start of the process to my closing date. And like many others, I was in awed that anything this big could be built without sacrifice in quality. Prior to making a decision to build a house, the husband and I have visited many model homes to get an idea of what builder plans and finished we liked. Seriously though, Home Builders are just the Project Managers of the building process and they outsource the building to local contractors. There are only a set number of contractors in a city so I’m sure they all produce similar type of work. What sets these builders apart are the finishing touches and cost of upgrades they offer off of the base price and I must say they varies a lot from one builder to another.

DIY - Orchid Boutonnières

Sorry for the interruption but I'm back to update! It's been a whirlwind of events the last few months but it was so worthwhile. While I was gone, I planned a wedding in Austin, moved it to Michigan within 6 weeks to go, and finally got married. Now that is over, I can spend some time documenting all my DIY projects.

One of my wedding colors was watermelon pink and it was probably one of the hardest color to match up. Since I was planning a wedding afar, I figured it was most reasonable to DIY my groom and groomsmen bouts with silk flowers. I wanted Phalaenopsis Orchids to be exact but the color was impossible to find. What is a girl to do when she wanted a color, paint them :)

I found these silk flowers at Joann's for $5.99 a stem. There were 7 buds on there, just enough for the mens.

Recipe - Dau Hu Chien Sot Ca, Pan Fried Tofu in Tomato Sauce

It's been awhile since I actually made it to the kitchen to play chef. I have been spoiled rotten by my beloved lately. He is such a sweetheart :)

For personal reasons, I've been practicing vegetarianism(? is that even a word) and pretty much getting tired of all the carb-loaded cheesy food. I had a stocked fridge and I needed to cook everything before it goes bad. Today, I attempted Pan Fried Tofu in Tomato Sauce. I haven't made an authentic dish like this in awhile.

Like most females of my family, we hardly measure ingredients, you just "smell" and wing it.

Ingredients:

• 1 block of firm tofu
• Corn Starch Powder
• Paprika
• Black Pepper
• Salt
• Sugar
• Soy Sauce
• Tomatoes
• Chili Peppers
• Cilantro
• Oil

1. Pat dry the firm tofu block with paper towels after unpackaging. Try to squeeze as much water as you can without destroying the tofu block :)

2. Slice the tofu up in squares or rectangles. It's your preference, you can get fancy and slice into triangles if you prefer.