South Street Sea Port

Chanced upon this when I was waiting for my interview around John Street. I walked across to the other block on Fulton Street and came to this pretty lively place called South Street Sea Port.( Susie, I should have brought you here). Touristy but a nice place to hang around after you got tired of shopping at Century 21 in Lower Manhatten.:)

I am glad I went for the interview . It was a part time tutoring position with this school.I was hesitating coz i did not really want the job. Alright, I mean I kinda of decided that the position wasn't going to fit into my school schedule after I sent in the application and hence was hesitant about it.Anyway went for it in the end coz i thought why not gain some experience of having some interviews in America? Some parts did not go too well so i don't think I will get the position. But oh well, I am happy that I went through it at least.:)

ONE vs THREE?

The only way when time seemed to run short and you want to make sure your husband has something to eat when he is back is to cook the one dish meal like my all natural mushroom vermicelli soup ( Stock base: Ikan billis;soya bean;scallops, brew for a minimum of 40 minutes) and Aglio Oglio. I am in the midst of discovering more such recipes because lazy me can have more time to do other things.Somehow, i have not reached maximum efficiency in terms of whipping up meals. SImple dish like this , it can take me up to 20 minutes of preparation time, 20 minutes of cooking and all in all 40 minutes!!!Somehow, chopping the garlic,cilantro,ginger and stuff can take up so much of my time.

But then , there are times when i feel like just taking my time to cook. IS pretty theraputic actually. So when that is the case, you can see me preparing portions beyond what two people can eat!!Three or four dishes in a meal.Now , people who came to our house will understand why our fridge is always stocked up with so much food for just two people!

I feel pretty accomplished whenever I whipped up something nice coz I rarely did:P how about you?

How to make Chocolate Fondants

Since my last attempt to make Oats cookies last Thursday was a success ( after many times ), I decided to try making Chocolate Fondants.Slurp Slurp. After looking at the video, I was even more encouraged to do so.Check out!
If this is a success, it will be on my list for the Thanksgiving Dinner Menu!

Smilez at Ferry terminal

I love BB's new pose for the day.And one of our favourite daily commute to the city takes us just 5 minutes. Lately, we have discovered more ways to go the city. We can take a bus which goes to 42nd Port Authority for just 10minutes and thereafter you can take the subway to anywhere u like ( Most likely will opt for this way to go to school). We can also take the lightrail to hoboken and thereafter change to Path. This will probably be great if we are going to WTC or Lower Manhatten.if not, we can just drove in straight to the city using the Lincoln tunnel which costs us 6 bucks each time.Or the last resort, drove up to edgewater ferry terminal and took a ferry across to to upper west side!!

Potato Marshy just like us!

Yesterday, both of us worked in the kitchen together to whip up the dinner. Though there were small squabbles about how things should be done, we enjoyed the process of doing something together. So yesterday, the man did two pan fried salmon ( got them from Chinatown at a good deal) and I did my first attempt in whipping up mashed potato from scratch. Quite a successful attempt for the first time and I must say is easy to make. So everyone can give it a try.We deliberately moved our little dining table to the window ,lit up some tealights and while having our little homecooked dinner, we marvelled at the beautiful skylines of Manhatten and enjoyed each other company. I wished we could do this more often

We loved our new loft!

Asbury Park

This weekend was pretty busy for us. On saturday, we decided to drive out to the beach since summer is going to end in two weeks time. After researching online for a while, Asbury Park is our pick!Being out in the Sun is definitely good for me. I am feeling so much recharged after working on my job search at home for the whole week.The gentle breeze and not so blazing sun coupled with some soothing Mediterreanean music from the nearby Carbana Store was heavenly.BB and I are such beach bumers.On top of that, BB has his AC fellow mate who will join us every saturday for some weekend retreat. "HoHo hocklicks" as I will like to call him is a super hilarious guy who likes to entertain us with his jokes.The day ended with a late evening dinner. The weekend chef whipped up delicious fish curry and stirred fried asparagus with minced meat and drowned his guests in his bottle of 2005 Califonian Zifandel. Our Chinese friends came over to our place to chill and the entertainment was our wedding video.Time flies, it has been two months since the dinner!




Sunday was our usual routine which we are still trying to refine. Church in the morning followed by marketing in Chinatown. I decided to shop in Chinatown because is way way much cheaper and I can get all my groceries done for the week at just 40 bucks.Good deal i will say coz the last time, i did it at the supermarket ard my neighbourhood, it cost me a 100 bucks!Henceforth, every weekend , we will be dragging our groceries, take the ferry and subway to head back to our place.BB is starting to complain that this is not an effective way and there is no way he will do this every week. So there we go again, trying to find a better way to do our marketing. Maybe is time to invest in a old granny pushy-trolley?:)or maybe I should start exploring other kinds of crusines...?:)

Suggestions please.

Thanks everyone who has written to me the various ways we can improve MUAK. So far, the reviews have been good and we are working hard on getting our site to have more publicity. Sales are definitely coming in due time.Please drop any suggestions or comments over here.Not too sure the best suggestion will get to have free stuff from us though.:P
Love this beautiful write up about MUAK from Ellie.
Thanks Ellie san!

Do you want to be organized too?

Lately, I discovered a change in me. Or should I say it seemed to be my Old self resuming. Getting pretty organized in all the little things in my life.( Urghh..wasn't like this for a pretty long time) Started getting happy in just putting ticks on my to-do lists. Drawing up little schedules of expenditure,grocery inventory stock lists.Lists of weekly,daily and monthly schedules to do cleaning of bathroom,kitchen and laundry. Planning my weekly menus so that I will be doing my marketing in one shot in the weekend.Started labeling all the little folders for the vast amount of mails we received.SO far so good, have been getting things done.:)
Gosh,I wonder how long can I sustained these? Anyway, thought that once school term starts for me, I need some systems to get going in the household in order for me to balance both family ,study and work.Having some systems in your life do so good when you try to multi task between various roles. Help to remove clutter in your thoughts, your space and lead to getting things done efficiently. I called it PRODUCTIVITY! I have prayed and priortized that lord will guide me in balancing my role as a wife and pursuing my passion. Never to compromise my BB's mealstime and cleanliness of the house when I got more responsibilities coming in!
And today when i was doing my quiet time, God affirmed me that in many areas of Jesus's Ministry, there is organization. The way the stories are being told, the way he instructed disciples to go in teams to evangelise, the way he gave out the bread to multitudes.Being organized will help us to make time off to do his ministry and work!!
So am I still a right brainer or left brainer?I hope I am still right!

Build Him Up

A virtuous woman builds her husband up. She offers praise and kind words that make him feel like the man he wants to be.

You have probably heard the saying, “Behind every good man is a good woman.” The woman of Proverbs 31 had a good husband. He sat at the gates with the elders of the city. He was respected in his field. He was a successful business man. He could not have been all that he was had she abused him with her words and sliced him to the core with her disrespect.

Whether your man works in an office, likes to putter around the toolshed, or use his hands to work hard, he wants to know that he is the man you desire. He wants to be your knight in shining armor, your hero, your big strong, hunk of a guy.

When he fixes the sink for you, tell him how clever he is. When he builds the kids a swing set, tell him how strong he is. When he saves money on a purchase, tell him how much you appreciate his concern for your family’s financial well being.

Don’t tell him what an idiot he is, or that you could have done a better job. Don’t make him feel like a failure. Tell him you need him around, that he provides well for you. He will work hard to live up to your praise!

Photo by: Josh Armstrong. You can visit his ministry site at: www.globalyouthnet.com.

Melissa Ringstaff is theP Founding Director of A Virtuous Woman. She lives with her husband and five children in the beautiful Appalachian mountains of Harlan, Kentucky.

MUAK opens!

Hi all,
Finally, our little online store has been launched.Thanks Jocelyn for doing such great work with the website. So , friends and my dear readers, please help me to do some advertising, word or mouth..or whatever!We are selling internationally and the goods are located in the States. Singapore customers can contact us directly for other methods of transfering funds but the goods will still take about 1 week to arrive from the States.We are going to have more promotions coming along. So check out now and then for them. Remember to MUAK us!!!Click on the picture below to get to the site.