Fried Bread

The recipe below is called Fried Bread, I always love to eat those crisp fried bread...and as some of you know that I am a bread lover..huge fan of bread =) I might like this recipe. I found the recipe on Gourmantine. Look at the image I found on the site....looks soooooooo yummy!

Ingredients

• 250 g of bread (half rye, half wheat and preferably sourdough)
• 50 ml sunflower oil
• few garlic cloves
• salt
• 4 tablespoons of mayonnaise
• 1 tablespoon of water
• 200 grams of grated cheese
• pinch of white pepper

Instructions

1. Heat the oil in pan.
2. Slice the in slices as in the photo above and fry on both sides until nicely brown. This will go very fast so take care not to burn. You will have to do this in batches.
3. Once the bread is baked, transfer it on a paper towel to absorb extra oil, directly sprinkle with salt and rub with garlic.
4. The cheese sauce can be made few way, you can make it as a sauce on side, by simply mixing mayo, cheese, water and pepper and heating it in the oven till it melts.
5. Alternatively you can you pour sauce over the bread and heat it in the over or microwave altogether till the cheese melts. Enjoy!

(image and recipe via Gourmantine)

Rely on YOU

Being independent means your are dependent only to yourself, which also means that you are responsible to your own act and decision. This also applies to happiness, we can't rely our happiness to other people. We are the creator of our own happiness and also our own feeling. Don't you think so? The quote below explains the meaning of our happiness and self worth.

“Don't rely on someone else for your happiness and self worth. Only you can be responsible for that. If you can't love and respect yourself - no one else will be able to make that happen. Accept who you are - completely; the good and the bad - and make changes as YOU see fit - not because you think someone else wants you to be different.”

Stacey Charter

(image via favim)

The Positivity

A friend of mine send these few paragraphs below. It's about how we have to deal when something happen beyond our control which can me us disappointed. I just thought I should share this to all of you =)

If there is one thing that life will always have to offer us, it will come in the form of disappointment. People will disappoint us, we will disappoint ourselves, our plans will fall through sometimes, and not everything that we will achieve will always be as we envisioned it.

We must be willing to look at disappointment in the positive, and say to ourselves that God must have some better in store for us.

We must also be willing to be patient, and try not to force what snit meant to be. Live the life that you know you should be living in spite of everything that goes wrong, because if you stop living nothing will move in your favor at all. Just have faith, and eventually you will have more than you ever thought you could have, and you will be places that you never thought you could be.

(image via everyonehasastory-this-is-ours.tumblr)

Cuteness..

(image source: piccsy, piccsy)

Iris Apfel's Manhattan Apartment...

WOW! That's the very first word came out from my lips seeing the interior of Iris Apfel's Manhattan apartment below (source). Iris Apfel is a very stunning woman. She is a fashion icon for sure and also an interior designer. Look at her apartment below, Oh My God....I fall in love completely. She's not one of those minimalist interior lover but on the contrary, she loves to put everything in one room. But, those mixture of different things in one room somehow make the room looks really stunning and brilliant.

(Image source: architecturaldigest.com)

Stop Feeling Blue..

Have you ever been so blue? I'm positively sure that we've felt blue now and then. Sometimes there were times when we feel like the world is against us or maybe we feel that all we did was always wrong. Feeling blue is a normal emotion as a human but when we feel blue for too long, it might not be good for ourselves. Life is an emotional roller coaster in which we might feel extremely happy at one time but we might also feel blue or sad on the other time. Some people say that being sad or blue is important so that we know for sure how it feels to be happy. Life is always like that, we have to feel the bad one in order to understand the good one, vice versa. So, what to do when you're feeling so blue? First of all, you have to keep in mind not to be blue for too long. Here are some tips written by Jacquie Hale from Selfgrowth.

• Appreciate the Good Stuff

Acknowledging the good and beautiful in your life is a great daily practice. Making a list of what you appreciate can lighten your mood instantaneously. You can do it by yourself, or better yet, call a friend and inspire each other. Make the sky your limit! Think of events in history that have inspired you or people who have made you thankful just to have known them. Appreciate the person who cuts your hair exactly as you like, the school crossing guard who volunteers even during a torrential downpour, politicians whose values match yours, your boss, your spouse, your kids, your co-workers, and don't forget--appreciate yourself for all the things you accomplish!

• Eliminate the Negative

In the short run, you can turn off news and TV programs that cause you distress and even stop reading the newspaper. Fill the space you create with media that is uplifting. If your discouraged moods are significant or frequent, it might serve you to stop interacting with negative people. This may require a big effort and great ingenuity on your part. It may be that ultimately you would be doing yourself and the other people a favor by being truthful. You might say, "I'm having trouble keeping a positive outlook these days, and when you are always finding fault people, I start to feel down. So, I'm going to skip our weekly coffee klatch for a while."

If the weather or the short days are bringing you down, try to block the outside views and fill your space with as much light as possible. You might even get full spectrum light bulbs for your living and work space where you spend the most significant part of your day.

• Distract Yourself

When you find yourself in the downward spiral of negative self talk, do something startling such as splashing cold water in your face or slamming your hand on a table and declaring, "Stop!" Other activities might include percussive activities like hoeing in the garden, chopping wood, jumping rope, or simply stomping around.

A fine way to distract yourself is to put on some favorite music and dance for a while. Some people find great release in planning and cooking a meal, baking cookies, or putting up a batch of jam. Others get lost in a complicated puzzle or computer problem. Keep a list activities you enjoy so that all you have to do is look at the list for a distraction when you're dragging along so low that ideas are hard to come by.

• Communicate Appropriately

If you notice that you have suddenly found yourself feeling grumpy or inexplicably down, review what was going on in the few hours prior to the feeling descending on you. You may find that you had a conversation that left you feeling unsettled. It might be that you didn't say what you meant to say or you withheld the truth of how you felt. Sometimes it might be that you didn't set good boundaries and you need to speak up.

This is not an easy thing to do. It takes finesse to tell the truth in a way that doesn't make the other person wrong. The best way to do this is to make "I" statements. Talk about how you feel, not about what the other person is doing. You can't say, "I feel you are a jerk!" because the jerkish person will simply get defensive. In this case, you could say, "When you act like that, I am afraid someone is going to get mad and start a fight with you." Another common boundary-setting statement is, "When you act like that, I feel that you don't like me or you are angry with me."

• Challenge Negative Thoughts

If you have an Inner Critic that is giving you grief, start making a list of all the things this critic says about you. Then look at each statement and ask these questions:

• Is this true?

• How do I know it is true?

• How do I act because I believe this is true?

• How would I act if I didn't believe this was true?

(article source: SelfGrowth - image source: favim)

A Thousand Years

I am currently in love with Christina Perri's song "A Thousand Years". Not because it's one of the soundtrack of Twilight Saga (one of my fave movies) but it's the melody and also the lyrics. Loooove it so much. Seems like my baby daughter loves it too. Everytime I play the song, she can easily falls asleep =) Here's the video below.

Heart beats fast

Colors and promises

How to be brave

How can I love when I'm afraid

To fall

But watching you stand alone

All of my doubt

Suddenly goes away somehow

One step closer

(Chorus)

I have died everyday

waiting for you

Darlin' don't be afraid

I have loved you for a

Thousand years

I'll love you for a

Thousand more

(Verse 2)

Time stands still

beauty in all she is

I will be brave

I will not let anything

Take away

What's standing in front of me

Every breath,

Every hour has come to this

Listening..

Do you always listen to other people when they're talking or telling you a story? It's not always easy to really listen to other people seriously. Sometimes just listening to other people when they're telling you their story could really mean a lot to those who are telling you their story. And sometimes all we can do is to lend our ears when someone really need us to listen to his/her story. Below is a short note about listening from StressCure.

Listening is not a passive activity!

Listening is anything but a passive, neutral activity. While it may appear that this is all that's going on, many active processes are taking place within the listener--if they're listening well, that is.

You see, listening is not just hearing the words people utter. If that's all there was to it, we could train computers to do the job.

But listening to human beings involves much, much more (which computers will never do). It involves not just accurately hearing what people say, but getting a sense of who they are, how they view life, what they want to accomplish, what concerns they have, what they're afraid of, how they're feeling, what they want from you, and more. It even involves "listening" to what people aren't directly saying, or what they might be too reluctant to say, or what they definitely don't want you to do in response to their communications. Show me a computer that can do all that!

Thus, in order to become a very good listener, we can't just stop with hearing the words people say. We've got to attend to many other details and many other dimensions that don't meet the eye, but that are crucial nonetheless. (This is why it's so difficult to recognize what good listeners do that makes them successful--it's all going on invisibly inside their heads and the rest of their body.)

(image via weheartit)

Smile..

Any plan to do this weekend? I haven't got any plan yet this weekend. Well, whatever you're going to do this weekend...don't forget to always smile and to always be lighthearted. Life would be easier to live if we're happy and always think positive =) Have a great weekend everyone...

(image via weheartit)

What People Think..

Have you ever been so mad and frustrated when people told you what to do or when people always judge you based on what they see on the surface of our life? I am sure it has happened at least once in our life. When such thing happen to me, the first thing I do is to take a deep breath, relaxing myself and of course not to care about what they think about what I've done or what I think. Here's an article about not to care about what people think, found it on Plugin ID. I'm not saying that we always have to ignore on what other people think about us but I am saying that when those thoughts from other people can ruin your mind or distracting your mind, maybe it's best not to care about those thoughts.

The Secret to Not Caring What People Think

1. Stop Over-thinking

It is probably in the majority of occasions that you think you are being judged where people don’t actually care for the thing you are worrying about. Do you judge every single person that you meet, probably not.

If you do, you might want to sort out that side of your life first as there’s no wonder you care what people think of you. The best way to test it is to push your limits a little, do something that is a bit out of the ordinary for you and see how people react. Chances are that only your “friends” might notice the change and make comments, but a random stranger really won’t care.

2. Put things into perspective

To people that aren’t naturally concerned what others think about them, having an issue with it seems quite strange or even silly. The reason is that when you put ‘issues’ like this under the microscope you can see they are really not worth having. You only get ONE chance at life in the physical world and you are going to allow other people’s thoughts make it less enjoyable?

Sounds silly now doesn’t it.

Apart from the fact that life really is too short to worry about things like this, the other aspect is that people’s feelings change. For example, say one moment people insult you for wearing yellow trainers, therefore you think they shouldn’t be worn and that is the last time you wear them. What if this persons opinions change, and they start wearing yellow shoes themselves; is that the only time you’ll put your trainers back on?

3. Be confident in your actions

Seeing as it’s likely we’ll always have some thought towards the feelings of others, what if we could really eliminate the amount of times it happens? Well, you can. The trick, if you want to call it that, is to simply be more confident in the decisions and actions you are taking.

Have you never seen someone that might be wearing something out of the ordinary or acting different to the surrounding crowd but things just seem normal and they aren’t being judged?If you are wearing yellow shoes and are clearly uncomfortable in your choice then people are going to target you because they can see that and they probably want to feel good about themselves. However, if you can wear the shoes with pride and confidence, whilst clearly not caring what other people think then you’ll notice the negative reactions to be very small if any.

4. Learn to control your emotions

When you start to try things like pushing your limits or simply being more confident, you will undoubtedly have mixed emotions in your head. From stress, worry and fear, to relief and happiness, it can be a bit of a mind roller coaster; that is where controlling your emotions comes in.

The simple practice I learned from Eckhart Tolle goes a bit like this:

• Be conscious of an emotion inside you i.e. fear or worry
• Observe it within your mind
• Notice that if you are observing it, it can’t be a part of you
• Watch the emotion disappear
• As soon as you observe an emotion, you are separating yourself from it and thus it can no longer exist.

5. Accept yourself for who you are

If you are constantly judging yourself then there will be no doubt to the fact that you’ll judge what other people think of you. The main cause for this is often self-limiting beliefs or society has made you think there is something wrong with you. Understandably, accepting yourself is not the easiest thing to do but there are things that help.

(article source: Plugin ID - image via favim)

Family..

Below is such a good quote about family by Sarah Dessen. I believe that family is everything, they are the reason on our existence in this world. The only one who will stay in our good time and bad time is our family. I can't imagine myself without my family.

“What is family? They were the people who claimed you. In good, in bad, in parts or in whole, they were the ones who showed up, who stayed in there, regardless. It wasn’t just about blood relations or shared chromosomes, but something wider, bigger. We had many families over time. Our family of origin, the family we created, and the groups you moved through while all of this was happening: friends, lovers, sometimes even strangers. None of them perfect, and we couldn’t expect them to be. You can’t make any one person your world. The trick was to take what each could give you and build your world from it.”

- Sarah Dessen, Lock and Key

Banana Milkshake

Look at this Banana Cream Pie Milkshake made by TheKitchn, isn't it yummy? I love banana so much and I love milkshake too. So I guess I will love this mixture =) Well, maybe you can try this recipe at home for the weekend. Have a good weekend everyone..

Banana Cream Pie Milkshake by TheKitchn

(Makes 1 large milkshake or 2 very small milkshakes)

Ingredients:

• 3 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted
• 3/4 cup graham cracker crumbs
• 1 cup vanilla ice cream
• 1 ripe banana
• 3 tablespoons - 1/4 cup whole milk
• 1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract
• Whipped cream, to top

Directions:

1. To make the graham cracker pie crumbs, preheat the oven to 350°F. Stir together the melted butter and graham cracker crumbs. Turn out onto a small baking sheet and bake for 7-10 minutes. Remove from oven and allow to cool completely.
2. In a blender, combine the ice cream, banana, milk, 1/2 cup of the graham cracker crumbs, and vanilla extract. Blend until smooth. Pour into your favorite glass, and top with whipped cream and a pinch of graham cracker crumbs.

(recipe and image by TheKitchn)

Montana house..

WOW..that's all I can say when I saw the house below via Freshome. It is a home located in Montana, USA. Can you imagine yourself living or maybe a just for a weekend getaway on that house? I would be the happiest person if I could have a chance to won such a beautiful home. Well, maybe someday =)

(images via Freshome)

Live..

This is a quote that I think is good to be read in the morning, not long after we woke up from our sleep. It is about greeting new day with a fresh mind and also welcoming every opportunities that come to our life. Have a great day =)

“If one has failed to develop curiosity and interest in the early years, it is a good idea to acquire them now, before it is too late to improve the quality of life. To do so is fairly easy in principle, but more difficult in practice. Yet it is sure worth trying. The first step is to develop the habit of doing whatever needs to be done with concentrated attention, with skill rather than inertia. Even the most routine tasks, like washing dishes, dressing, or mowing the lawn become more rewarding if we approach them with the care it would take to make a work of art. The next step is to transfer some psychic energy each day from tasks that we don’t like doing, or from passive leisure, into something we never did before, or something we enjoy doing but don’t do often enough because it seems too much trouble. There are literally millions of potentially interesting things in the world to see, to do,

to learn about. But they don’t become actually interesting until we devote

attention to them.”

― Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi

(image via favim)