Happy Halloween! It has been a long time since I got time to post anything here. The work gets so busy that I barely have time to do anything else. The autumn actually is almost half way through and most of the trees have lost leaves.
I cannot believe that it has been almost a month since I post last entry! This blog has become monthly event now! :) I have been very busy on traveling for both fun and work. I went back to Asia to visit my parents. It was great to spend some time with my family again. We even went to ride the Maokong Gondola. It was a long ride since the total length of the gondola line was 4.03 km (2.504 miles). The whole line had 4 stations and it was like a shape of number "7". So that means there were a spot that the gondola had to do a 90 degree sharp turn. It had been reported that the gondola system had some problems since its opening in 2007 but our ride went smoothly and was quite enjoyable. We enjoyed the view and the sunny weather.
It was also very nice to spend the Mid-autumn festival with them. It has been a long time since I went home during that time of the year. The weather was just too hot and humid for me. It was sunny and around 95'F degrees (35'C) and almost 90% humidity all the time. I could not stop sweating even just walked for 5 minutes outdoor. The good thing was that I got to eat lots of delicious moon cakes with all the nice interesting new flavors and I gained several pounds! :) Oh, and I saw these beanie babies machines all over main shopping centers back home. People were really into them and kept trying their luck but very few got anything. :) And it surely is a big weather change when I come back to Wisconsin, US since the temperature changes from 95 degree to 45 degree (35'C to 8'C). Fall is definitely here now. Yawn! And wish my jeg lag goes away soon!
Life has been so busy recently that I barely have time to update my blog! The summer is short on the north here in Wisconsin, USA so we have to make the best use of the warm weather while it still lasts. As a a matter of the fact, some plants/trees have started to lose leaves even though it is still around 80'F (25'C). That's most likely due to the gradually shorten daylight. We went to visit Las Vegas last week to get away from all the work stuff and run into the heat! LOL. We stayed at the brand new hotel/casino, "Aria" in city center at Las Vegas. It is a very modern design building. As you can see from the picture, the roof of the lobby almost looks like a UFO at night time. And we were so lucky to encounter one of the few rainy days when we got there. Talking about luck. 
Besides the usual casino tour, we also went to visit the Shark Reef Aquarium at Mandalay Bay. It was the 10th anniversary of the place but everything inside was almost exactly as I visited it 10 years ago. Quite a waste of money to me since there is nothing new to see. At least, they still have those big jellyfish! If you have never been there, it is still a place worth visiting, especially, for kids. We also went to see the Circus de Soleil show, "Le Reve" at Wynn. It was very good and had some amazing stage designs. But overall, it was not as good as the other show, "O", since both were using water as the main components. Overall, it was a great vacation. Now, back to work! :)
It will be my best friend's birthday on this coming Sunday so I made this gluten free chocolate ganache cake for him. It is a 2-layer chocolate cake covered and filled with chocolate ganache. The cake is based on a recipe from Ina Garten. I made several changes to adapt it to be gluten free and more moisture. Of course, the secret ingredient, brewed coffee, definitely makes this cake even more chocolaty! 
Busy busy summer days! After hosting an out-of-town friend on last Thursday day night, I had to use my Friday night and Saturday to make 3 birthday treats for my 10-year-old nephew and twin 8-year-old nieces for their birthday party on this past Sunday. Their birthdays are just one day apart so I really had to work hard and almost no weekend! One of the twin girls wanted a cake so I made this circus tent cake. It was a pineapple cake with grape jelly filling and lemon frosting. It had roof and windows made of fruit roll-up candies and door and chimney made of chocolate bars! The cake was moisture and delicious!
The other half One of the twin girls just loves anything purple. So I made this palm size of chocolate chop cookie with a big two-tone purple vanilla frosting rose for her. The rose petals contain 2 shades of purple colors. In addition, she also wanted lemon sorbet so I made that too!
The boy wanted a big chocolate chip cookie cake as the one he saw in the bakery store. So I actually went to the bakery section in the grocery for some research. I ended of making the classic toll house chocolate chip cookies in 8-in round pan size. Of course, this one was made in my gluten free version. Lots of desserts for everybody in the kids birthday party and it was a success!
It was a nice July 4th long weekend in USA. The weather was wonderful, sunny, hot but with breeze. Did lots of yard works, watched fireworks and parade. In addition, we had some friends and family coming to visit for several good meals. I made 2 desserts to celebrate the Independence Day weekend. The first one was a strawberry cranberry pie since it is the season for fresh strawberry. In order to make it gluten free, I had to make the pie crust from scratch. It is actually a shortbread kind of crust, which holds all the liquid from cooked strawberry and cranberry very well. I used the frozen cranberry to add some tangy to the sweetness of the strawberry. The topping was made of oatmeal, rice flour, butter and sugar. It turned out to be a great pie!
The 2nd dessert was a gluten free version of pineapple upside down cake. The base was the stored bought yellow cake mix. The topping was the caramelized pineapple with cherry. It was just OK since the cake was a little bit dry. I used to add instant pudding mix or sour cream to improve the taste and texture but decided not to this time. And what a mistake I made! Will not repeat that mistake again! Overall, it was a great weekend! And there were so many fireflies outside in the garden at night time to make it look like small fireworks in the yard! Hope that all my US friends had a great 4th of July weekend too!
