Buuuurrrrrdoooockkk!

Hello, World!

Today I'm going to try something a little bit different. This post isn't about crafting, nor is it a personal rant about my life. Instead... its about food!!

The reason why I decided to post this was because I had far too many people asking me... What the heck is that?? And... how does one cook something like this?

What I'm talking about is... Burdock! (Or, in Chinese 牛蒡 - Niu Bang. Or, in Japanese ごぼう- Gobo). If you want to know more about this root, check out Wikipedia! Can't go wrong there, right? ;P

In any case, I was first introduced to this food from my mom, and it's super easy to make (well... let's face it... everything I cook is super easy to make). I'll put out a disclaimer though... I cook like the stereotypical Asian person: I don't do measurements. My method of cooking is eyeballing ingredients, which I know drives some people crazy. But I'll do my best to try to guestimate what I use in one serving size.

Ingredients:

 - Burdock root (1-2 roots)

 - Chopped garlic (3-4 cloves)

 - Shredded meat (I usually use 1.5-2 lbs of beef)

 - Soy sauce (about 1/2 a cup, or to taste)

 - Brown sugar (1 tbsp packed, or to taste)

Directions:

1: Wash the roots! Typically, when I purchase the roots, they come in packs of 2-3, which makes for a LOT of burdock. But because I hate having to cook a little bit at a time, I tend to throw all of it in the pot... making for lots of leftovers.

2: Chop off the ends of both sides (it tapers out towards the end, which tend to be dry, so I usually cut them off), then section off the roots into more "cutting-board" friendly sizes.

3: Using the backside of your knife, or a spoon, scrape off the skin of the root. You're welcome to use a vegetable peeler as well, but the skin of burdock is actually very thin, and I've found that I usually end up taking off too much when I use the peeler. By using a spoon or the backside of a knife, I only take off a thin layer of skin, which allows me to save more of the root.

4: Slice the roots into thin slices, diagonally (kinda like julienne). The reason that I slice it diagonally, rather than straight through the middle is because I want very thin slices. And, since there is a lot of root to go through, I try to slice it thinly, diagonally, with as much surface area as I possibly can. As a plus, I think the vegetables look prettier this way. \ (^o^) /

5: After slicing the roots diagonally, slice everything until you end up with thin slices, as pictured below. Don't worry if some slices are bigger than others, everything will get cooked in the end. So no worries!



(Tip: If you have a vegetable slicer, now is the time to break it out!! My arm always gets really sore chopping up all these roots. But if you can have a machine do all the work for you... why not?!)

Now, you're ready to cook!

6: Heat up a pan on medium heat, and add cooking oil.

7: Saute garlic until slightly brown, then add your meat (in this case, beef). I haven't tried adding other types, but that's probably because I like beef so much, I don't want to be disappointed if another meat doesn't work as well. Haha. But, pork sounds like it would work well with this dish too.



8: After everything is cooked through, add the roots and saute for another 8 min or so (cover with lid if necessary).



9: Add in soy sauce and brown sugar.



9: Cook for another 5-10 min, until you see all the roots start to take on the darker color of the soy sauce.



10: Done! Serve and enjoy! :)



I realized... I forgot to take a picture of the actual dish when I plated it. Oh well! Sorry! :p

Burdock doesn't soften like other roots, like potatoes or carrots. Instead, it retains a kind of crunchy texture, which I really like. Burdock also has a slightly sweeter taste, so you might find that you don't have to add that much sugar to the dish. Remember, the measurements that I have listed out are only for reference -- tweak them to your own tastes! :) You can also choose to thrown in some green onion for extra color or flair.

Hope you guys enjoy!

Thanks for reading

:)

A Little Piece of Home

Hellloo world!

Happy Labor Day weekend! 

This weekend, I decided to take an impromptu trip back up to my hometown (mainly cuz a friend offered a ride.... And why should I turn down a free ride home?? Haha). I've only been home for half a day and already I have the urge to just stay here and not go back to work (don't worry, San Diego folk, I'm not making any rash decisions... Yet).

I was looking around my mom's home office, when I spotted one of my clay creations I made a while back. It happened during one of crafting sessions with a group of church friends a while back. I made the clay sculpture in San Diego, then brought it to NorCal to show my mom. She liked it so much that I just gave it to her, but didn't take any pictures of it. Haha. But now that I'm back for the weekend, I decided to that I wanted to document it. Perhaps add it to my non-existent portfolio. 

The most difficult part of this creation was to keep it centered and keep the glass itself free of fingerprints. The first thing I did was create the foundation of the sculpture by molding a piece of clay to the bottom curvature of the glass.

Then I made and assembled all the pieces (house, bears, stones, grass, etc.) on the foundation, outside of the glass and baked everything before putting it inside the glass jar.

I glued the clay inside the glass in order to prevent it from sliding around.






Although I had a lot of experience making clay bears... these were particularly difficult to make due to its small size.

They were probably a tenth of the size of the clay keychains I make. In other words... really tiny. Haha. XD But they were fun to make, nonetheless. It was also fun thinking of a scene to put them in. Rather than just having one character, it was an entire scene for me to make: a happy bear family in their new home.



I think I mentioned a couple posts before (DIY air freshener) about the glass etching I did with my friends. This is one of the jars that resulted from that crafting session. The design for this was very simple-- just a few clouds along the outside of the jar. I thought up the design for the inside after I had finished making the jar.



When I purchased these glass jars (in the wedding party favors section) they came with little cork caps and twine and pretty cutout labels to go with each jar. I think adding those elements to this project really completed the look, making it truly seem like a "piece of home" in a jar.

Mmmm... not much else I can think of to add to this post. Haha. XD It's also getting rather late, so I should probably head to bed. :P

Thanks for reading!

:)

Rock Bracelet

I really couldn't come up with any clever titles this time... So it's just straight to the point today. Haha.

Yaaaayyy for meee.... a new post! (Pat myself on my back)

This craftiness happened the same night I made the earrings from my previous post. Since I finished the earrings within 5-10 minutes, I still had plenty of time to make other pretty items.

Here's what I had to work with:

Eye pins, chains, and rock beads!

I got these rock beads, also on a whim. Not really sure how I feel about them... even now. Haha. I was initially attracted to the beads because they looked like rocks and that somehow seemed cool. In any case, I had these rock beads to work with, and I decided to make bracelets. Mainly because my friend made her own bracelets, and so I wanted to make bracelets too. But, the question was, how would I make it?

First, I took the beads and added rings to the side of them so that they would be able to connect to the rest of the bracelet.

Since the eye pins were too long, I cut them short and then proceeded to make rings at the other end.

After making rings on all of the rock beads, I hooked them up to the chains that I had, and laid them out.

Aaaaannnnndddd... here's where I messed up.

I had the idea to make the rock beads hang at different lengths on the bracelet, but then when I cut the chains apart, I forgot that I had planned that. Haha. And I thought I was so smart for finding the very middle of all the chains by hanging the down on the table. Imagine my surprise when I realized that I had to re-string and re-cut the chains all over again because now they were too short. Haha.

In any case, I ended up cutting longer sections of the chain for the rocks so that their lengths would be uneven on the bracelet.

The final step would be to join the three chains of rocks onto one bracelet.

I took a lobster claw and strung all the chains on one side and strung all the chains on another side on a closed ring.

And.... ta-da! Final product:

I guess it turned out okay. :P

I ended up making two more bracelets with the rest of my rock beads. One I made exactly the same, and the other I made the three rocks line up in one row so that it looked kinda like a ladder strung across my wrist (if that makes any sense).

All in all making bracelets was pretty fun. But I think I'm still more of a polymer clay sort of girl. Still, I'd probably still be down to try my hand at other sorts of bracelets when I get the time. Lately, it just feels like I just spend a lot of time at work, and so when I have free time, I just want to relax and play. Haha.

I already have a few posts in mind, so stay tuned! :)

As always, thanks for reading!

:)

Breaking the Hiatus

BOOM.

I'm back.

Haha. I've been gone a while because... well, life kinda got in the way.

I got a job (Praise the Lord!), and it's basically taken up most of my time... and my life. Before getting a permanent job, I've always been told to "make the most of my time," something I truly should have taken to heart. I never realized how tired I would be coming back from work every day. :(

But, that is another post for another day.

In any case, since work has taken up most of my time... I find it hard to find time to sit down and make things, much less find time to document it and post it up.

BUT.

THEN.

I finally downloaded the blogger app onto my phone. And now... blogging should be a little bit easier. I've always been super lazy about uploading pictures from my camera to my computer. However, with the wonders of technology these days, I can now upload my photos from my phone, directly to my blogpost! Granted, if I took nice pictures on my DSLR, I'd still have to face the dreaded tangle of chords and wires, but at least if I make simple craft projects, I can document and post at a much greater ease!

In any case... let's move on to something a little bit more interesting.

A few weekends ago, I went to Michael's with some friends to pick up some items for a craft project we wanted to work on. While browsing, I happened to pick up two gem-drop pendants, thinking that I could use them, somehow, somewhere, during my crafting career. Each one cost $5.99 (+tax), and I had a coupon that gave me 25% off my entire purchase (I felt like quite the winner that day).

That night, I as I was browsing some online shops... I noticed that Anthro sold earrings that looked EXACTLY. LIKE. THE. STONES. I. BOUGHT. 

Check it out: 

And, it looked super simple.

The next night, my friends and I had a crafting night (a night I desperately craved...) and so I laid out my supplies for the night.

2x gem-drop earrings; 2x fish-hook earrings

Please ignore the small rings and chain. I thought I'd do something fancy and add some silver chains, but it ended up looking too bulky so I thought... why try to complicate my life anyways?

This project took all of 2 minutes to complete. I think it took me longer to take pictures/document/gettherightlighting than to actually make the two earrings. Haha.

Step 1: Take fish-hook earring and open it up.

Step 2: Place gem-drop into earring.

Step 3: Close the earring.

Can it get any easier than that?? Self-pat on the back!

Annnnnd, here is the finished product!

I'll admit, the earrings are a little heavier than I would have liked, but if you're only going to wear them for a few hours... its really not that big of a deal.

But, come on... 30 bucks (including tax) from the store... verses 15 bucks and 1 minute? Plus, you can totally brag about how crafty you are to your friends (not that I'm encouraging bragging... Uhh... let's just kindly inform your friends).

I spent the rest of the night making other crafts (which will come soon... I promise!!). But these were literally the easiest earrings I've ever made. I still haven't decided what to do with these earrings. Half of me wants to keep them.... but the other half of me kinda just wants to give it away or sell it. Haha. I'll guess I'll figure it out in a few weeks.

Well... that's all I have for today. 

I'll do my best to update more often... but like I stated from the beginning... I've never been consistent nor diligent at keeping up with blogs. I do have a few blog entries I have in mind (both crafty and non-crafty), so please be patient with me!

Thanks for reading!

:)

A Fresh Scent

So... a while back I did a D.I.Y. air freshener with water beads as a gift for my friend. It was a long belated Christmas/birthday present. Haha. My apologies. :P

I've been meaning to post up this project for a while... But, as per usual, life got in the way and I got extremely lazy. Mainly because I didn't feel like uploading all the photos from my camera into my computer. Hah. Haha. 

Anyways, here I will attempt to go through the entire process of how I made this air freshener. Mind you, this was a "huge" undertaking for me, because its very rare that I document an entire process. The primary reason for why don't document things is because I don't follow directions/patterns very well. In addition, I change my mind a little too often for me to care to document everything. Plus, sometimes I just get caught up in making stuff that I forget to put down my work and stop to take pictures from multiple angles. Haha. I'm always really impressed by bloggers that are able to keep up documenting every phase they go through. Props.

I originally had the idea to simply spray your favorite scent into the water beads... but after doing a little bit of research, it looked like most D.I.Y. air fresheners used scented oil rather than just a liquid based scent. This is probably going to be a very long post... because I tried to take pictures of each step that I took. Hopefully I won't run out of things to say after a while. Haha. XD 

Let's get started! :)

The items I started off with was this glass container and the cap. When I bought it, it had a cork cap on it, but I decided later on in the process that I didn't like having the cork. You shall all see later what I mean. Haha. XD

The bird and floral design is a result of a crafting session with a few of the girls from my church. A little before Christmas some of my friends and I got together to to do some glass etching. The process for glass etching was rather simple: cut out the design you want imprinted, put etching cream on the cutout, let sit, and then wash it off! And, thanks to a very, VERY useful computerized cutter, we were able to get beautiful and perfect cutouts (had it been up to me, I would have spent a rather long time cutting out my own design, full of imperfections and frustrated failures. Haha). Of course, to get a design that you really want PLUS getting it all clean and pretty is a whole different story. Hahaha. XD

Right then, moving on. 

Now, in order for the scent to be able to come out of the bottle, you would naturally have to create an area where air can pass through the top of the container. I didn't want to leave it open because the water beads would fall out if the container ever tipped over.

At first, I thought it might be cool to just puncture holes in the cork cap, but the more I tried to pierce holes in the cap, the messier it got. I realized that, because the cork was really thick, the holes would have to be unattractively large. Haha. So, I thought of something else. (On a side note... I have no idea where that cork cap went. :( )

My brilliant idea was to cover the top with something similar to cloth caps that are used to cover jars and stuff. I happened to have some extra mesh lying around, so I decided to try to make a cap out of that mesh. If you're wondering about the mesh, it was actually extra mesh that I took from home. My mom and I put a new screen on our backyard sliding door, and we cut off the excess mesh and I took it because I thought it might eventually be useful for something.

And voila! Useful! :D

The mesh needs to be at least an inch wider than the diameter of the top. The reason being that the mesh needs to not only cover the top, but also come over the edge of the top to wrap around the top, and still have extra mesh to spare. After cutting out the square of mesh, I took thick thread and doubled it, then threaded it through the mesh. 

It took me many tries to thread the top correctly, actually. Every time I threaded the cap, it was too short and small, and when I tightened the threads, it would be too small and fall off of the top of the container.

It also took me a while to figure out how to tie the threads together. Both ends I used a simple double knot. I ended up using the adjustable sliding knot for the area where the threads crossed in order to allow for the cap to be tightened and loosened at will. I wanted to be able to take the cap off because then it would be able to refill the container with water beads and mix in difference scents, if necessary.

When I finally figured out how to put the cap on, the hardest part was finally over.

Now, it was time for the fun part! :)

If you're never played with water beads, its a lot of fun, especially if you're not working on a craft. ;) I actually first purchased these water beads a few years back in order to plant things in it. The tricky thing is, you need to regularly change out the water, or else mold starts to grow on the water beads. :( I learned that the hard way. Haha. But I had so many water beads, that it didn't really matter if I had to throw some away during my trial and error phase. Haha. 

Fun stuff.

Apparently you can make your own water beads as well. But, I don't really know how true that is. So, if anyone ever tries it... let me know how it turns out! :P

Here's what the water beads look like when they are dehydrated. You can purchase water beads fully hydrated, as well as dehydrated ones. I happen to have blue and green beads cuz... those two happen to be my favorite colors (not particularly in that shade, but I tend to favor blues and greens more than other colors).

And all you gotta do is put them in water, and wait for them to grow! I'm always fascinated by the beads cuz, when they are expanding... they actually don't expand like the way a water balloon would (swell up). Instead, if you look closely at one bead, it actually looks like a bunch of other tiny little bubbles grouped together and swelling up at the same time. Weird but strangely fascinating at the same time.

Here is it still in the growing phase. I had to add more water at this point because it was running low on liquids to suck up and expand on.

I probably waited roughly an hour for these beads to grow to full size. I probably didn't need to wait that long, but after the beads expand to their full size... it's not like it explodes or anything if there's too much water. So I just let it sit in order to ensure that they had reached their maximum capacity.

I completely overestimated how many beads I would need, so I ended up having quite a bit of extra water beads. Those I ended up playing around with for a while (longer than I care to admit. Haha) and I finally just left them on my counter to dry out and return to its original dehydrated state. It took quite a few days, actually. I even spread them out in order to allow for more surface area in attempts to dry them out quicker. I supposes it would shrink quicker if I placed a paper towel under it or something.

Then, all you gotta do is buy an essential oil scent, and add in a few drops! Mix it around until you think that its well infused into the beads, and then you're pretty much done! I went with my friend to Bath & Body Works and she picked out the scent she wanted. In this case, I used approximately 5-7 drops of Caribbean Escape.

And finally, simply put the cap on, and tighten the strings! Yay! Air freshener complete!!

It was kinda funny working with the essential oil. I was trying to test out how strong the smell of the air freshener was, and to see if it would be able to actually "freshen" the room. However, I think by the end of the project, I was so used to the smell, I couldn't tell what I was actually smelling. I also put my nose up to the opening of the bottle way too many times, which probably dulled my senses even more. Haha. XD

All in all, this was a pretty fun project to do. I found out that the glass etching that I added on the outside of the jar became pretty much invisible after I added the water beads into the jar, which was slightly disappointing. I think, if it had been a solid wall of color, rather than individual beads that were placed in there, it would have been more visible. Perhaps I can try making one of those gel candles or something else next time. :)

Well, I hope you guys enjoyed this post! More to come! I promise!

It just might... take a while. :P

Thanks for reading!

:)

Milestone

Mmm... Well, I'm not sure if this would be considered a "milestone," but it seemed like a fitting title. Somehow, "The time period where I'm trying to figure out my life and not be lame about it" was just too long of a title.

I guess I'm going though something that everyone goes through once, twice, three, four...?... (you get the point) times in his or her life. Its something that some people embrace while others... they shy away from it.

I'm talking about...

Change.

Specifically, I'm talking about my life after graduating from undergrad. I knew it wasn't going to be easy, and I knew that I would go through a lot of struggles during this time. I don't have a degree in a very applicable area (Japanese Studies and Chinese studies are, shockingly, not specific enough to land me a job that I want), and I most certainly do not have enough experience in work to get anywhere in life. Haha. And it's been a struggle for me.

Now, I don't mean to write about this to point out how sad I am and how pitiful my life is. I don't want people to think that I am wallowing in my lack of a direction or anything. In fact, in all honesty, I know that I have many more blessings than I deserve. I have a roof over my head, clothes to wear on my back, a loving family, a loving church, a loving community, and a job.

So... Why am I struggling through this?


The other day, while I was sharing about my day with my pastor and his wife, he asked me if I was stressed. My reply was a quick and definite: YES. I'm STRESSED.

He laughed and said, "That, is very blatantly, sin."

What? Sin?? Can't a girl catch a break? Isn't it natural to get stressed when you're tired? There's no need to go as far as to call it sin...

... or is it?

But, the more I thought about it, the more I realized how accurate he was. True, it may be just "stress" that I am going through. But, at the heart of it, I lack trust and faith in God's plan. I don't know what I'm doing with my life right now and, therefore, I panic. I want God to reveal to me exactly what I should be doing, exactly how I should do it, and... I want it all right now.

As of right now, I can honestly say that I'm... unsatisfied. The job that I have, though it is a blessing to even have a job, has nothing related to what I want to do in the future (of course, when friends and family ask, I can certainly twist it in certain ways that make it sound like it is). It's a small company that forces me to take on a lot more responsibilities than I expected for a part-time, entry level position. It's stressful and draining. And, while it does prepare me for working life and dealing with authority figures in the work place... most people will agree with me in concluding... I probably need to get another job.

Of course, God usually has something else in mind. :P

And, naturally, God has something in His Word that directly speaks to such a situation:

[Romans 5:3-5]
"Not only so, but we also glory in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope. And hope does not pust us to shame, because God's love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us." (NIV)

Whatever it is that I am going through right now... God is allowing me to go through it for a reason. I am to grow and to learn from this struggle and, hopefully, emerge wiser and more mature.


There. Simple right? Now that I understand why God is putting me through these challenges, I should happily embrace these challenges and thank God for allowing me to go through them.

But, I think there comes to a point in my life where I have to recognize when God is telling me to persevere and when He is telling me to take a leap of faith.

What do I mean by that?

I believe, in certain instances, God is telling me that I should stand firm to my ground, and accept my circumstances as challenges that will mold me and grow me. In other instances, I believe that it may be time to move on.

This is where change comes in. Now, I can sit here all night and talk about how, if I stay at my current job, I can learn about small businesses, learn about dealing with stress, learn about interacting with customers and people, etc. But, at the heart of it... I know that this is not a place where I can make a career. I know that God has something bigger and better planned for me, and I know that, one day, I will have to leave my current job and trust in God's plan elsewhere.

The question is: When? When will the change occur? Is it now?

As I pray and meditate on what God wants me to do... I lean towards the idea that God wants me to move and to change. And... here... is where fear enters. Fear of changing. Fear of taking the leap of faith and allowing God to be in control.

And that is where I stand now. At the edge of a forest (pardon me for my cliche), afraid to walk in because I'm afraid to discover new things. All because I'm too comfortable with this little patch of grass that I've been sitting on. And, even though the grass makes me itchy and annoys me sometimes, I'd still rather sit on this grass and convince myself that this grass is already plenty green and that I can still discover new and exciting things. Like that little ladybug that flew by, or the morning dew on the blades of grass. I'm too scared to walk into the forest and allow God to bless me and show me new wonders.

I'm not an adventurer.

But God calls me to have courage and embrace change.