No Bake Strawberry Cheesecake!

Remember about my recent post where I get to try making beef tacos because I was able to purchase them online? Well, not only did I buy Taco Shells but I was also able to get some Jell-O No Bake Strawberry and Oreo Cheesecake. I've never made cheesecake before and so today, I finally decided to give it a try.

Beef Tacos is Love!

I have been craving for tacos recently and having purchased some Taco Shells online recently, I finally satisfied my desire to munch on its crunchiness!

Here a simple and fast way to make home-made Beef Tacos.

Feeling hot? Visit Green Lake Park Club!

With the past few days being unbelievably hot and dry, it's hard to believe that it's still spring in China. So when a friend of ours mentioned swimming to us, she had all our undivided attention. Luckily, we didn't have work this weekend so we all decided to go swimming yesterday. 

Green Lake Park Club is located inside the Charming Lakefront community.  It's a 10-minute bus ride if you're coming from our apartment. The community has just been built recently and hasn't been quite discovered by most people. It has this Victorian-inspired look and is quite foreigner-friendly since all of its signs were in English and there's even a Western restaurant just outside the gate (prices were pretty expensive, though!).

Entrance to Charming Lakefront and direction going to the clubhouse

A shot of the Western restaurant called the 'Western Restaurant'

Hot pot on a hot day?

Last Tuesday, some of the Chinese teachers in our school decided to invite us for some Chinese hot pot for lunch. 

Hot pot (also known as Chinese Steamboat or Chinese Fondue) is a Chinese way of cooking where they serve you a big pot of soup, or in our case, our own individual pot of soup and some various food materials that are put in the pot such as sliced mutton, beef, leafy vegetables, mushrooms, glass noodles, frozen bean curd and seafood. There are built-in burners on our table and as soon as the soup boils, we put our foods and wait for them to cook for a few seconds. We were also served different kinds of dipping sauce to add flavor to our dishes since we don't need to eat rice with it. I usually prefer the peanut sauce with a little bit of garlic, meat oil and spring onions.

A typical hot pot setting where you have the choice to choose between a spicy or a non-spicy soup

A variety of ingredients to make your own dipping sauce

Hot pot is usually ideal in winter because it keeps us warm while giving us more time to talk and socialize with friends as we wait for our soup to boil. It's also a fun way of sharing a meal together where everyone cooks their own meal right at the table. 

Thinking of making your own Chinese hot pot?

Reducing Large Audio/Sound Files on Mac

I have made another discovery that most Mac users might find helpful. Being an online English teacher (a part-time job), we are sometimes required to record our classes and submit for observation and scrutinization. The audio/sound files that I usually have tend to be large that it's usually hard to send through email. With further research online, I found an easy solution to reduce large files. This can also be helpful in condensing your music collection, even allowing you to fit more MP3s to your player or burn to your CDs.

Simply follow these simple steps:

1. Open your iTunes.

Strawberry Milkshake, anyone?

What's the best drink to make on this hot day? 

Answer:

Yup! Some creamy, smooth and cold strawberry shake would surely beat the heat and make your day. Thinking of making yourself one? Here's an easy way to do it.

Reducing the size of Large Photos on Mac

I've been a Mac user for almost 2 years now but I'm still discovering a lot of new things everyday. This morning, as my husband was trying to submit documents to his new school, he kept getting frustrated because he can't seem to upload his .jpg files. As it turned out, the sizes were too big. He then requested I reduce the sizes of his files. For a while now, I had no trouble sending photos thru Mac email as it is automatically resized (depending on how large or small you want your attached file is) for you. I also didn't have any reason to resize them until now. 

Love is sweeter the 2nd time around!

When my husband and I celebrated our 1st anniversary, we were far from each other (him in China and me in the Philippines). But this year, we were finally able to celebrate it together. Waking up on your anniversary with the one you love cuddled next to you was such pure bliss. 

Today's dessert: Mango Float!

I've always loved desserts. A meal is never complete without an ice cream or something sweet for dessert. Way back in high-school, I went to my best friend's birthday party and she served me this mouth-watering and heavenly dessert. It's a combination of mangoes and cream that tasted like ice cream but looks like a cake. It has become my favourite ever since. It's so delicious and so easy to make. It can go in any occasion, whether it be a formal or casual one. Just follow these simple steps and soon you'll be enjoying it's divine taste.

A well-spent 5-day holiday

Chinese holidays are quite different with the ones we have back home. Philippines usually have short holidays whereas here, it sometimes lasts for a few days up to a month (e.g. Chinese New Year).

Working in a language school, we sometimes don't follow the exact number of days for some of the holidays because we usually adjust to our students' holiday schedule in their regular schools. Schools in China like doing make-up classes. Whenever there's a holiday and there's no classes on those days, they make sure to have advance make-up classes for the kids. When regular schools do that, class schedule in our school gets affected. So we also need to adjust our schedule to make sure that we still stay on schedule.

Since we're expected to work on May 1st, the school decided to give us a 5-day holiday from April 26 - 30. The first day of our break, the Aston gang decided to go bowling and had dinner outdoors. 

Easy to do stylish buns

I have discovered a new way to twist and bun my hair. Simply follow these simple steps and you’ll soon have stylish buns-from loose to tight buns:

1. Gather your hair into a low or high ponytail.
2. Twist your hair into a bun and tuck in the ends.
3. Place bun spiral onto your bun, purple tips towards head. Gently twist clockwise into hair until secure.

Have a stylish spring/summer!!!

Another year younger for me

What I love about celebrating my birthday is that the more I get older, the more I enjoy life and the company that comes with it. Plus the fact that even though I am getting old, I never look old. It's a gift, I know.