Chicken Pasta Salad

Not sure why pasta salad came to my mind. I just had to have something else for a change. In fact I've done pretty good in this trip. I've been here for 3 weeks (with another 3 to go), and only been to Chinese restaurant once. In fact, that trip turned out to be just mediocre. There was nothing fantastic about the food. Rice rice and mushu port. I can even do it if I have proper equipment. For some reason, I can cook eggs for breakfast with the electric stove, but Chinese food? No, no way. I need gas stove.

So I don't think I'll go back there. 30 CND is good for lots of grocery anyway. I also do not plan to make any Chinese food here. Maybe something else would be nice. I guess that's when I thought about pasta salad.

I tried to search online for recipe, but all the recipes I found require strange (for me) ingredients. I know they could be just some dry spices available in the grocery stores, but I really did not plan to spend 20 CND just to get ingredients to make a bowl of pasta salad, and know that the ingredients may have to sit in the cupboard for years before they will be used again.

So when Ed said he has a simple recipe that they really enjoy. I asked him to send it to me right away. I love it at the first sight of the ingredient list, because they are all so simple, and I use them pretty much on a daily basis. I followed the recipe quite well, and here it is (direct copy and paste from email):

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12 oz package of tricolor spiral pasta
1.5 cups mayonnaise
1 cup grated Parmensan cheese
.5 cup milk
1 teaspoon salt
2 cooked chicken breasts, skinned, bonned and cut into bite size chunks
1 cup chopped tomato
1 cup chopped green bell pepper
.25 cup coarsely choppen onion ( we use the blue onions they are milder and prettier)

In a larg pot of boiling salted water, cook the pasta to desired doneness; drain, let cool and set aside.
Meanwhile, in a large bowl, combine the mayo, parmasan cheese, milk and salt. Add pasta and toss to blend.
Mix the remaining ingredents , chill for several hours before serving. Easy
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I cooked the whole package of pasta, 375 grams, or around 13 oz. Cooked pasta expanded so much that I could not mix all at one time, so I divided it into 2 batches. The attached photo is from the first batch. A bit more mayo in it, but the flavor from mayo is still not offensive. I used Kraft Miracle Whip to replace mayo, and it is not very strong in flavor anyway. For the second batch, I used 2/3 of required mayo, and the salad tasted like heaven.

Chicken adds a very nice texture to the salad. I really enjoyed it. I did not use bell pepper, as it is harder to digest, however, I may wanna add some celery or avocado next time, for more color and more flavor.

I made them for lunch one day, and we finished all of the pasta salad the next day for supper. That's how great this recipe is.

Shrek Forever After

I really like Shrek. When the first movie came out, everything was amazing. They chose an fat ugly ogre to be hero to save the princes, and the princess chose to be ogre (or is it the second or the third movie?). Eddie Murphy did an excellent job to voice for the donkey. So when Shrek 4 came out, I thought it is a must see. But it is disappointing.

I guess you just can do the same tricks a few times. After that, no matter how good you are, it's just the same old same old. Donkey is still donkey. There is no new trick to Eddie's voice. Puss is still puss. His big eyes do not do anything to me anymore. They were not the main characters, but stood out and added so much to the movie, but what's new now?

True love's kiss is probably an interesting idea. Fiona's kiss is supposed to be the key to remove the magical contract, but since Shrek's birth date has been taken away, and thus practically does not exist, so Fiona does not recognize him, and does not love him, so her kiss is not true love's kiss. This is not hard to understand, so is still kind of cheap. We all have watched too many movies regarding time traveling, and know exactly how things may change if we break the continualty of time.

Graphics is good, but I watched the 2D version. Well, 5-dollar movie night on Tuesday vs close to 20 dollars for IMAX, there is an easy winner for me. I suppose the scene when true love's kiss is completed, and the whole disappears, that scene must be great and beautiful in 3D IMAX, but other than that, there is nothing new about the story, music, and everything. Please do not make another sequel.

Google TV

So now Google wants us to search on TV. My question is, how can Google make watching TV a more enjoyable experience?

Do I need a wireless keyboard to search every time I turn on the TV? Do I need to scroll up and down using the arrow keys on the keyboard? Or do I need some other pointing device, either wii remote or wireless mouse, to click on the video of my choice? With my limited imagination, I simply can't foresee I would like the way it works, unless it can be easier to than flip my laptop open, or wake up my imac and search from there.

In fact, search, in my opinion, is a very personal thing. Of course, I can search anything I want, and click on anything that I'd like to try. Sometimes I find myself searching on youtube for a long time, just to find the best video from a list of results with the best video and audio quality. But if I have a family and kids, do I still want to turn on the TV, and search for several minutes to find the program that we all like to watch for maybe just a few minutes? Yes, there is a lot of content on the internet, but what is the likelihood of finding something that we enjoy watching for hours? Are the contents really ready for search?

From the video released by Google, if we cannot find anything to watch from the current cable, we can search. However, can we find anything to watch on the internet, or we just spend hours searching and clicking, thinking there is a whole lot out there but we are simply wasting our valuable time?

Contents is still the most important.

TiVo is a gem. I only briefly used it at my friends' place, and was so in love with it. Not sure how much they have progressed after so many years, but I still do not see anything from US to replace Tivo's simple but powerful functions. Even Apple store is not good replacement. It sounds crazy for me when almost everyone has cable, and has to spend more to purchase each episode and download from Apple store.

Yes, download. Nowadays I hate to have to download anything. I thought we are talking about cloud computing. Everything is supposed to be in the cloud. Everyone is supposed to be connected to the internet. Why do I need to download?

Maybe it's time to really look at the progress in China. I am not sure if I talked about pps before, but for me, it is still the solution.

Attached is the screen shot of pps, with Supernatural shown in the program list. All the contents is there, named with season and episode. I do not have to browse through too much information, nor do I have to search endlessly. It's like a TV. I turn on and go to the place I need. There is no need to download. I click on play and the program starts to play in 15 seconds. All the contents is there, so there is no need to set up any machine for download, and thus easier to use than Tivo.

I'm sure there is a lot of legal issues with the programs on pps, but the program is so fabulous. Google should really think out of the box. Don't indulge with its own search engine.

Chat Online

I've added a new widget on the left column of my blog. Sometimes I use meebo to log on to my various instant messengers, and if I'm on meebo, this widget shows I'm online. Please edit name at the bottom of the widget if you'd like to chat, so I know how to address you. I'm pretty sure a cookie or something will be stored in your computer, so you only have to change the nickname once.









What's going to happen on my part is that, once you are on my blog and I'm on meebo, the nickname that shows in the chat widget shows in my meebo account, as shown in the second screen shot. I hope that does not make you uncomfortable. Of course if I'm not online while you are on my blog, no evidence of your visit will be stored anywhere.

Added on May 21, 2010: Offline message is ok on this widget. It is quite convenient little tool.

Birthday

Maybe because I grew up in a poor family, birthday was never a big thing for me as a kid growing up. In retrospect, I learned the concept of birthday, and looked up in the calendar, and looked forward to the day when I was born few years earlier. There was no birthday cake, no candles, no family getting together singing happy birthday, but my mom would cook me some noodles with pig livers. That was one of my favorite food. I can't recall if my brother or sister had any birthday party. I was never invited to any kind of birthday party even as a kid growing up in Tainan. It was just a regular day that went by silently.

I did ask for a small birthday party when I was a junior high school, and got some of the painting equipment that I longed for. There was art class in junior high school when we had to bring our own brushes, paint, and water bucket to school. It seemed that everyone had a deflatable bucket, that looks nice and good. I was the only oddball to bring a used tin, that has milk powder printed on the outside and always bulged my school bag. So that year before birthday I asked if I could have some painting equipment for birthday. That was probably the only chance in a year when I could justify something extravagant. You know, why would I want a deflatable bucket when a tin can can do just fine. The gifts were carefully wrapped. I did not tear the wrappers, but carefully removed the tapes and kept the wrapper for a long time. That only happened one year.

That's probably why I feel birthday is really not a very big deal, and is also a very personal thing. It's so personal that I don't feel like having a party and sharing with many people, because it really has nothing to do with them. Yes, if there is one day that makes me so special, it is my birthday, and nothing else, but feeling special is one thing, shouting out loud and having a party to tell the whold world that I am special on that date is just not my cup of tea.

It is nicer to be remembered.

I guess that is also what sets father and mother apart, and somehow I feel closer to my mother. Mothers always remember kids' birthdays. That's just what mothers do. Even now, when I call to wish happy mother's day, she still mentions my birthday is coming up. That makes me feel special. At least once a year, somewhere on the globe someone thinks about me.

This year, on that date, I woke up with a card in the morning, and chocolate. I know he has a very good memory, but I still suspect he checked into my passport to find out. That's unexpected, as he had sent me a card before he went to the hospital. And then later in the afternoon, after we came back from a long walk, I said I had to get something to drink, and maybe some bites to tie me over before supper. He said then what about some ice cream for a change, and took out a pint of ice cream that he had bought 2 weeks before I got here, when it was on sale. I thought I checked the fridge in and out and knew everything we had, but then somehow ice cream was sitting in one corner and escaped my thorough inspection. Ice cream was cherry flavor, one of my favorites, because I got the same flavor last August in Vancouver. I generally do not like surprises, and specify my birthday presents when I have a choice. But this surprise is darn good, and spanned across the whole day. Unbelievably cheap, unbelievably considerate, and really, unbelievably everything I want it to be.

I thought I have to finish this post by end of May, so am writing it. :-)

Strawberry Shortcake

This is probably the best strawberry shortcake I have ever made so far. Same cake and same strawberry from the other day. But this time we cut in cake in half, and put a lot of strawberries between the top and bottom layers. I still can't believe frozen strawberries work so well to make this dessert.

Google Doc New Features!!

I have used Google Gocs for my personal documents for a while. It's mainly for non-critical purposes. For example, if I just want a simple spread sheet to do some repetitive calculations, or just need to write down some notes for my personal reference, I use Google doc. Although I probably have Microsoft Office somewhere in the computer, I'd like to store the information on the internet, so the same information is accessible to me wherever I go. However, I won't hesitate to dig out Office if I need to update my resume and send it to the company I'd like to work for.

Another nice thing I like about Google doc is that it is simpler to share information. All I need to do is to click share and choose from there. There is no need to attach anything manually. Friends will receive an email with the link. It saves time and precious space in inbox.

Google doc was not perfect. Although it had the import function, but it was only limited to import the file format it accepted, that is, documents, spreadsheets, and slides. Other than that, it did not accept anything else. Not photos, not music, nothing else! Thus I was not able to back up some other data.

This morning I was clicking around, and click 'new feature' on the top right corner in Gmail, and was surprised to see the announcement from Google that Google doc now accepts all file format. That's the feature I have been waiting for for so long. I no longer have to look for alternative for file sharing, and file backup. I used Microsoft's Skydrive but was not impressed.

The upload is easy. I tried to upload a screenshot and share it with another yahoo account of mine. Everything went smoothly without a glitch.

Of course, it's not that easy to satisfy me. Now that an important need has been met, I want something more. The capacity for Google doc is only 1G, so that is not enough for me to backup all my photos, which requires about 5G of space. I want more space. I also want a program running in my local computer, so whenever I update any file in the local computer, the program can upload and backup the file on Google doc automatically. Apple's iPhoto is already equipped with the same feature. If I share a photo in iPhoto to my Facebook account, then whenever I change the photo on my local Mac, iPhoto updates the changes to Facebook directly. I love that feature.

Cake

Nothing was originally made tfor the cake.

Strawberries were on sale last week. We bought a lot, cleaned them, and put them in freezer bags and stored them in the freezer. Yesterday I took one bag from the freezer to thaw, and thought I would really like to have some strawberry shortcake, so I opened the white cake mix and baked the cake, cut up some strawberries and added lots of sugar, and whipped some cream. The expiration date on the cream was 3 days ago, so there was no point of saving it. I whipped all the cream left in the box and ended up with a big container of whipped cream.

This morning I was chatting with a girl friend on plurk about dessert, and it just suddenly dawned on me that I could actually make a cake. The white cake is there, cream is whipped, there is some fruit in the fridge, I don't need anything else for now.

So I cut out one cube of white cake from the pan, sliced the cake into 3 slabs and put a handsome layer of cream on each slab, put them together, and put another layer cream on all 5 visible sides. I grabbed a few slices of strawberries and cantaloupes from the fridge and cut them into smaller pieces and put them on top, grabbed a freezer bag and cut a small corner off and filled some whipped cream in, squeeze and decorate.

So here is the funny-looking cake. It was such a fun little project in the early morning. It is so so far from perfect, the cake being too dry, the whipped cream unsweetened, cake not cut in perfect shape, whipped cream warmed up too much that it started to drip out of the plastic bag, nozzle not used to make cream the artistic looks, but when Fred woke up and we shared the cake and have morning coffee, it was so nice. Something different for today.

Get a nozzle for the cream? Maybe. Another cake any time soon? Maybe not, especially not when I realized how much whipped 35% cream I used on that little piece of cake. I would definitely think twice before I order any cake from coffee shops.

Paul Giamatti

The first time I saw this guy was on the movie "Sideways". Paul plays an English teacher, who wanted to write but could not be a published author, who divorced his wife few years earlier but could still not rebound from the marriage. His friend from college would get married in a week, so they went out for a wine tasting tour, and had romances of their own. His friend wanted to get married because the marriage could promise a stable life with spare time to continue with his show business, which leaves nothing more than narrator of TV commercials. He was waiting for the verdict from his publisher if his new book would be published, and during the trip, he learned his ex-wife, whom he wanted to reconcile with, re-married. Very nicely told story about how men face their middle-aged crisis and how they cope with it (well, just to face it really). I saw this movie few years before and really loved it. This is when I know about this fine actor Paul Giamatti.

Of course there are big starts in Hollywood. Gulia Roberts, Brangelina, to name a few. Movies may be blockbusters simply because their names are on the posters, but there are still so many fine actors out there who contribute just as much. They probably do not have the look to shine on the silver screen, their faces not shown on the posters even, but whenever I see them on the movie again, it was a nice and familiar feeling, like "hello Paul, here you are again, how are you doing lately. No matter how you disguise, I can still tell it's you.".

This is how I felt when I saw Paul Giamtti on Duplicity last year, and on the Last Station this year.

2 Months

I was a bit worried before the trip that I may not be able to pass the immigration. 4 trips within a year with the third stay being 2.5 months sound fishy. Although I am a darn fine visitor, the bad experience with immigration just could not go away.

So I arrived at YYC yesterday. The lady at the immigration looked nice. She asked me the purpose of this visit. I replied, my friend had open heart surgery, so I'm here to spend some time with him. She asked immediately which hospital did he go to. Well, I'm glad I know the answer and responded without any hesitation. She then stamped the report card and asked me to go to another office marked as immigration where I saw quite a few people stand in line. Calgary airport is not a large international airport, and probably does not have that many international flights, so when I went to the office and saw 4 or 5 persons in front of me and 7 or 8 when it was my turn, I thought they were being pretty cautious at the immigration.

Anyway it was my turn, and I was asked a few questions:

A: Were you here before?
Q: Yes, I was.
A: When was the last time you were here?
Q: Last December.
A: Why are you here this time?
Q: My friend had open heart surgery, so I'm here to spend some time with him.
A: Oh, how's he doing? Is he still in the hospital?
Q: He's doing fine. He was discharged 2 weeks ago.
A: Is he going to pick you up at the airport?
Q: No, he cannot drive for 2 months. I need to find my own transportation.
A: Are you going to work here?
Q: Nope.

Then he stamped on my passport and wrote something. I had not seen any writing the previous few times, so I specifically asked him what he wrote on my passport. He said you can still until early July. 2 months for you.

I said thanks, and sat on the chair nearby and find out where and what he wrote. It took a while to find it, with too many stamps here and there. The passport will expire early next year, so I'll need to get a new one once I go back.

The way immigration thinks is kind of strange. If I go shopping and spend a lot of money, I may get the VIP status, and enjoy lots of conveniences, free parking, discounts, etc. But if I go to a country too often, they keep an eye on me and give me restrictions. Is the picture a bit strange when I'd like to visit this country for 10 days and they let me stay up to 6 months, but if I come here too often, then they only let me stay 2 months.

So the original plan was to check how recuperation goes at the end of 4th or 5th week, and see what the arrangement can be done, I guess it's okay to remove this hassle.