Belle Mushroom - Leek Risotto

Leek is one of my favorite greens to work with. Its tangy, yet soft mouth-feel is always the star of any dishes. I made a creamy risotto dish with belle mushroom and leek. The mushroom gives the dish an earthy flavor, and so Shiitake mushroom is a substitute. The leek elevates the fragrance and gives the dish a scallion-like punch, finished with a soft, creamy sour cream or crème fraîche.

Below is the recipe:

Guinness Beer Chocolate Cake

The three-layer dessert right here definitely catches everyone's attention around the Thanksgiving table. Thanksgiving isn't always about turkeys, mashed potato, cranberry sauce and bean casserole! I started my thanksgiving day cooking with this beautiful Stout Chocolate Cake. The stout acts merely as an additional bittersweet taste to it as the alcohol evaporates during the process. It was my first attempt to bake it, but it turned out really moist and soft even though I did not set a bowl of water during the baking process. I got this recipe from ouichefnetwork.com. Although this one does not appear to be as sturdy as the ouichefnetwork cake, I'm pretty satisfied with this one.

For the cake:

• 2 cups stout (such as Guinness)

• 2 cups (4 sticks) unsalted butter

• 1 1/2 cups unsweetened cocoa powder (preferably Dutch-process)

• 4 cups all purpose flour

• 4 cups sugar

• 1 tablespoon baking soda

• 1 1/2 teaspoons salt

• 4 large eggs

• 1 1/3 cups sour cream

• 2 cups whipping cream

• 1 pound bittersweet (not unsweetened) or semisweet chocolate, chopped

1. Heat oven to 350°F. Butter three 8-inch round cake pans with 2-inch-high sides. Line with parchment paper. Butter paper.
2. Bring 2 cups stout and 2 cups butter to simmer in heavy large saucepan over medium heat. Add cocoa powder and whisk until mixture is smooth. Cool slightly.
3. Whisk flour, sugar, baking soda, and 1 1/2 teaspoons salt in large bowl to blend. Using electric mixer, beat eggs and sour cream in another large bowl to blend. Add stout-chocolate mixture to egg mixture and beat just to combine. Add flour mixture and beat briefly on slow speed. Using rubber spatula, fold batter until completely combined. Divide batter equally among prepared pans.
4. Bake cakes until tester inserted into center of cakes comes out clean, about 35 minutes. Transfer cakes to rack; cool 10 minutes. Turn cakes out onto rack and cool completely.
5. Bring cream to simmer in heavy medium saucepan. Remove from heat. Add chopped chocolate and whisk until melted and smooth. Refrigerate until icing is spreadable, stirring frequently, about 2 hours.
6. Place 1 cake layer on plate. Spread 2/3 cup icing over. Top with second cake layer. Spread 2/3 cup icing over. Top with third cake layer. Spread remaining icing over top of cake.
7. Bring cream to simmer in heavy medium saucepan. Remove from heat. Add chopped chocolate and whisk until melted and smooth. Refrigerate until icing is spreadable, stirring frequently, about 2 hours.
8. Place 1 cake layer on plate. Spread 2/3 cup icing over. Top with second cake layer. Spread 2/3 cup icing over. Top with third cake layer. Spread remaining icing over top of cake.

Eyes Upon Him (A Testimony of Michael J. C. Liu)

I was one of the pianists of NRETC (National Reformed Evangelical Teen Convention), Jakarta 2012. I was glad to be given the opportunity to attend to such a wonderful convention. It was that week when I first heard Ev. Michael JC Liu's testimony. Torn, I was reminded of multitudes of sins that I have done and how unworthy I am. Since that day, I returned back to God once again. At the end of Michael's testimony, he advised us to read Psalm 40 whenever I feel like falling and walking off the right path.

"When you have time, read Psalm 40", he said. "If you don't have time, then make time".
I give praise to the LORD for calling me back to the right path over and over again through His servants.Without further ado, below is Michael's testimony:

Good evening.
Whenever I am giving my testimony on stage, I think of myself as someone unworthy. If you are a Christian, you need to understand that it is a privilege for an individual to share a testimony for God. Who are we? We are totally depraved; it is by God’s grace and grace alone that we are saved. What makes us to be worthy to serve Lord God Almighty?

What makes us to be worthy to offer something to the Lord God? The whole earth is His, and everything is created by Him. It is Him who is worthy of all the praises. His name alone should be glorified.

When I was 14, my mother sent me to New York City. At that time, she joined a Christian church. Many new immigrants got their spiritual and practical needs met there, including my mother. She felt warmly welcomed in the church. When I was 15 years old, she was baptized, after which, she commanded me to attend her church. Before this, she was always very gentle; she had never used her authority as a mother. I thought I must listen to her first commandment, ever. As a result, I went to the church.

The Problem of Humility

Some people take pride in accomplishments and special abilities, and some in disability and absurd humility. It is clear to say that a man is arrogant when he claims that he is the smartest, the most beautiful or that he is god. But an extreme humility would also mean arrogance. But how could we label a person arrogant when he claims that he is unable to accomplish great things or that his talents do not surpass others' expectancy?

Paul, in 1 Corinthians 1:21-31 clearly states that God is our source of power and wisdom. No matter who we are, ministers or pastors, we preach to others in foolishness compared to His wisdom. However, despite our incompetence before    God, He is pleased that we, who believe, could be saved through the foolishness of what was preached. Even the most intelligent and wise man in existence is nothing compared to His wisdom. In the Ancient Greek Classification, power and wisdom are two separate ideas. But in gospel, power and wisdom are one.

"For since in the wisdom of God the world through its wisdom did not know him, God was pleased through the foolishness of what was preached to save those who believe. 

Jews demand signs and Greeks look for wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified: a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles, but to those whom God has called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. 

For the foolishness of God is wiser than human wisdom, and the weakness of God is stronger than human strength.

Brothers and sisters, think of what you were when you were called. 

Not many of you were wise by human standards; not many were influential; not many were of noble birth. 

But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong. 

God chose the lowly things of this world and the despised things—and the things that are not—to nullify the things that are, so that no one may boast before him. 

It is because of Him that you are in Christ Jesus, who has become for us wisdom from God—that is, our righteousness, holiness and redemption. 

Therefore, as it is written: “Let the one who boasts boast in the LORD.” 

~1 Corinthians 1:21-31 (NIV)

THE SOURCE OF POWER & WISDOM

This is a reminder that in order to be humble, we ought to believe that God is the only source of power and wisdom, from whom our abilities and talents overflow from.
This is also a reminder to be humble—on the other extreme. To not undermine the grace and gifts that He has given to us.
When we claim that we are not eloquent enough to spread the gospel of God, to stand up for His name, or even to multiply the talents that He has given to us, we too are claiming that His gifts are vain. You are boasting about your life, because you keep on looking at your drawbacks and faults.

Murdering Dreams for Love

Can't you see by now that your sacrifice has brought you to the most extraordinary places? And who knows what would come tomorrow or the day after. You hear it all the time, the voice coming from nowhere. You often cover up your ears so that the melodies stop ringing. But they are the very melodies that would possibly bring you to other places. Have you not realized that yet?
You've been walking not on your dreams, but on the dreams of others.

But you would be lying if you stop there, don't you think? Your greatest dream is to bring joy to the people you love. Love does not give a single care about whether or not you have been hurt in the past, love is courageous, love endures long, and above all, love sacrifices.
And beyond your sacrifice, you have seen signs of your other smaller dreams. They slowly build up higher and higher until they become too obvious to be abandoned. This is something we call grace, a mere privilege, something you should never experience a taste of it. You ought to keep on reminding yourself that the true meaning of sacrifice is to bear the pain for bringing joy to your loved ones.

Further up, this dream continues to rise, until you could no longer see what's ahead of you. You thought it was there to tempt you, to barricade you from reaching your ultimate dream. But I'm afraid you thought wrong. It was there to stay. It was meant to be.
Ever since you laid down your dreams for love, you have been receiving the gifts of love, hope and grace. And with these, came along your tiny dream puzzle pieces. And without you knowing it, you have already achieved your dreams and even more. This means also, something you would never thought of dreaming of.

In "murdering" yourself for others, you would at last find out who you really are:

A beautiful being of love and devotion.

"Whoever finds their life will lose it, 

And whoever loses their life for my sake will find it." 

- Matthew 10:39

Keep On living,

Alice

The Thing I Was Made For

You may have noticed that the books you really love are bound together by a secret thread.
You know very well what is the common quality that makes you love them, though you cannot put it into words. But most of your friends do not see it at all, and often wonder why, liking this, you should also like that.


Again, you have stood before some landscape, which seems to embody what you have been looking for all your life; and then turned to the friend at your side who appears to be seeing what you saw—but at the first words a gulf yawns between you, and you realise that this landscape means something totally different to him, that he is pursuing an alien vision and cares nothing for the ineffable suggestion by which you are transported.

Even in your hobbies, has there not always been some secret attraction which the others are curiously ignorant of -- something, not to be identified with, but always on the verge of breaking through, the smell of cut wood in the workshop or the clap-clap of water against the boat's side?
Are not all lifelong friendships born at the moment when at last you meet another human being who has some inkling (but faint and uncertain even in the best) of that something which you were born desiring, and which, beneath the flux of other desires and in all the momentary silences between the louder passions, night and day, year by year, from childhood to old age, you are looking for, watching for, listening for? You have never had it. All the things that have ever deeply possessed your soul have been but hints of it—tantalising glimpses, promises never quite fulfilled, echoes that died away just as they caught your ear.

But if it should really become manifest—if there ever came an echo that did not die away but swelled into the sound itself—you would know it. Beyond all possibility of doubt you would say "Here at last is the thing I was made for". We cannot tell each other about it. It is the secret signature of each soul, the incommunicable and unappeasable want, the thing we desired before we met our wives or made our friends or chose our work, and which we shall still desire on our deathbeds, when the mind no longer knows wife or friend or work.
While we are, this is. If we lose this, we lose all.

― C.S. Lewis, The Problem of Pain

I'm currently reading this book called The Problem of Pain. I strictly restrict myself to comment anything on this quote, for its beauty is enough and truth cannot be any truer.

"Here at last is the thing I was made for".

Alice

Slave to Beauty

I'm getting right at my point. Girls try way too hard to be beautiful.

Well, I'd be lying if I deny the fact that I never try to be beautiful. Beauty improves our social life and it somehow becomes a part of our pride. It is in fact, something that has been planted since the day we were born. Your pictures are posted everywhere, passed around, not passing without every person's judgement on you. I remember what my older sister told me on my first day of high school, "No matter whether you like it or not, sooner or later, there will be at least a friend of yours who judge you for who you are and what you do. And that's not the worst case. That judgement will spread all over the place, including to the people that you value and love, then will it eventually come back to you and hurt you. Just a brief warning. Don't screw up your first day of high school."

And yes! Those things above are the things we should be aware of, but there are limits on everything we do. We may please others, but we have to constantly remind ourselves of our limits. And sometimes, the most difficult part is not to stand firm despite the stream, but to know these limits—to remember who you are, your thoughts, your beauty, your personalities, your perks and your true self, in the midst of this society that will never be gratified.