Be Kind to Animals Week ( 3rd-9th May, 2009)

There is an old saying that the dog is a man's best friend. That is so very true. It is no secret that Kevin and I are dog lovers. We treat Abby (our family dog) like she is a part of the family, not just a pet dog. We would just die if anything happens to her or if she get's lost.

However, from the Home Again Web Site, it is said that 1 in every 3 pet will get lost in it's lifetime and without proper identification, 90% never make it home. This week is "Be Kind to Animals" week. HomeAgain supports the American Humane Association’s Be Kind to Animals Week® (May 3-9, 2009) by donating $1 to bringpetshome.com for every pet registered to the program during this time frame. HomeAgain encourages pet owners to “be kind” to their companion animals this week by outfitting them with proper identification that cannot fall off or become impossible to read and in the process donate to the care of shelter animals.

For each pet registered, HomeAgain will make the donation through http://www.bringpetshome.com/ - a fundraising Web site specifically created to help shelter animals . The Web site (bringpetshome.com), boasts a collection of highly popular retailers like Walmart, Macys, Office Depot, iTunes, Amazon and other famous retailers. Just register, shop at one of the participating online retailer and a portion of purchases made through this Web site goes to animal shelters for food and medical care. There is no additional cost to visitors.

HomeAgain has helped recover more than 500,000 lost pets. What is HomeAgain and how does it work? Microchipping is a permanent form of identification that cannot fall off or become impossible to read, giving pets the best chance of being reunited with their owners when lost. It is also really easy. Your vet simply injects it in, like a routine vaccination. Not only that, HomeAgain is a comprehensive national pet-recovery service that goes beyond microchipping. For an annual subscription fee, HomeAgain members have telephone access to pet-recovery specialists and 24/7 emergency medical assistance at 1-888-HomeAgain. The program also includes up to $3,000 (less a $50 deductible) in medical pet insurance for lost pets and up to $500 in reimbursable travel expenses for pets found more than 500 miles from home.

So, if you care about your pet and other animals, go check out the websites and 'be kind' to all animals!

Look what we won!

I have been meaning to blog about this a while back but just never got around to it. I found this on my front door about a month ago. I was like "ohhhh...a package! wonder who it's from?". I wasn't expecting anything in the mail, so it was pretty exciting :P

I ripped open the package to find this and a small card from Marlboro saying thanks for joining their sweepstakes and this is a gift for me! Marlboro?? Why should Marlboro suddenly send me a gift? Then I remembered, Kevin and I signed up for this Marlboro sweepstakes (just in case you are wondering, both Kevin and I don't smoke. It was a no purchase necessary sweepstakes) a while back, hoping to win a vacation at their ranch in Montana. I totally forgot about it.

I guess I didn't win the grand prize but got this consolation prize instead. What's in the box anyway? Well, it's a pair of sunglasses from Arnette. Okay, I'll have to admit. I really didn't know at that time that Arnette was a pretty cool brand, especially for younger surfer guys. I am more of the "aunty big sunglasses' type of person..so yeah :P I went to google the seriel number of the sunglasses and found out that it was the new Arnette Rage XL sunglasses. It came with a hard zipper case, lens cloth, soft fabric drawstring bag and two Arnette decals. The retail price for this is $109.95! Wow! Looks like they are pretty good sunglasses!

Since it's a guys model (well, actually I do not know if it's for guys or unisex but it looks like sunglasses for guys), I gave it to Kevin :P Looks like somebody is gonna look all cool and Mr Surfboarderish this summer..hahaha! Anyway, that was a pleasant suprise and even though I didn't win the grand prize, the thought of actually wining something is cool enough, be it sunglasses or anything else. Thank you Marlboro!!

Spot a celebrity in Kissimmee, FL!!

When you think of celebrities and where you can actually spot them, where do you naturally think of? Hollywood!! That's right, we often associate celebrities to Hollywood. However, let me ask you a question. What does Mandy Moore, Tiger Woods, Wayne Brady, Warren Sapp, Carrot Top, Shaq, Wesley Snipes, John Travolta and Mickey Mouse have in common? Don't have a clue? Well, they all have homes in Central Florida!! Looks like Hollywood isn’t the only place for you to spot your favorite celebrity. From Tiger Woods to Mickey Mouse, celebrities are out and about in Kissimmee!!

Some of the biggest boy bands of all time like Backstreet Boys and 'N Sync as well as famous celebrities like Mandy Moore, Carrot Top and Wayne Brady are originally from Central Florida. Big time sports stars like Tiger Woods, Warren Sapp and Shaq also have homes there. I wouldn't be surprised if you ran into Tiger Woods at the golf course (since his house is built just next to the golf course). John Travolta and Kelly Preston are also known to be really friendly to the locals in Central Florida, choosing to eat and shop at local small time businesses.

If you could plan the perfect day with my favorite Central Florida celebrity, I hangout with John Travolta and Kelly Preston. We would start the day by playing golf with Tiger Woods at the Royal St Cloud, followed by brunch at one of Kissimmee's quaint little restaurants, al fresco style. I would then go shopping with Kelly Preston at the upscale Mall at Millennia where we can look at Jimmy Choos and buy jewelry at Tiffany & Co. We would end the day by taking a hot air balloon ride over Kissimmee ( since John is a fan of flying) to watch the sunset. Alas, one can only dream :P

However, I can have a celebrity sighting of my own by going on a Kissimmee vacation. Thankfully, Kissimmee is giving away three (3) weekend getaways (3 days/2 nights) for two (2); and two (2) week-long vacations for four (4). Drawings will be held on or around 4/1/09, 5/1/09 and 6/1/09. All I need to do is enter the sweepstakes and I might find myself spotting celebrities in Kissimmee before I even know it!! Just click on the word Kissimmee to enter for a chance to win a Kissimmee vacation. I have already entered, have you??

My First Japanese Curry

When we were buying our Japanese groceries in Mitsuwa Marketplace a few weeks back ( I know, I know...will get around to blogging about it), there was a promotion going on for Japanese curry. I would usually just bypass the Japanese curry aisle but it caught my attention that day. They were selling it for just a little over a dollar per pack. I have heard a lot about Japanese curry but never tried it before. So, we bought two packs to try it out.

There were a lot of heat levels to choose from and we chose MILD (just to be safe). I really do not know what is a good brand or flavor, we just bought the cheapest one on sale. Mild curry with vegetables.

We were also wondering if we should just eat it with rice or something else, must we add meat to it..ect. Thank goodness the Japanese are one step ahead of us. There were suggestions printed on the back on how we should eat the curry. Woohoo! Looks like you can pretty much eat it with anything! :P

We opened the box to find a pouch and directions inside.

So, how do we make this Japanese curry thingy? First, boil a pot of hot water.

When the water is in full boil, drop in the pouch and let it cook until it floats. It should take about 5 minutes.

I made a pot of hot steaming rice to go with the curry. I read somewhere that if you were to put in a small dollop of butter into the pot when you cook the rice, the rice comes out extra yummy. I tried that and yeah, I have been adding some butter to my rice every since. It's really yummy! Just a little bit when you turn on the rice cooker. It makes a whole lot of difference.

Since the 'suggestions' behind the box said eat it with roast chicken, ok Mr. Box...roast chicken it is. We bought back some ready made roast chicken from the supermarket to go with the Japanese curry. The color of the curry wasn't the usual red/orange that I am used to but it was in a dark shade of brown. It looked pretty err I don't know...dodgy? Anyway, I took a mouthful and I was in heaven! Now I know what people are raving about. It's reallly really really good! Oh my goodness, I just love the taste. Not just that, it was so easy to make! The next time I go to Mitsuwa Marketplace, I think I will buy a whole carton and stock up. Yup, looks like I have found a new favorite, when it comes to Japanese food!!! :D

My Perfect Kissimmee Getaway

Summer is just around the corner and I can't wait to go on vacation! I have been surfing the Internet for vacation destinations and I found the perfect place for me. Kissimmee, Florida!! There is no vacation destination quite like Kissimmee. It's located in Central Florida, just a few minutes south of Orlando. What I like about Kissimmee is that there are just so much to do, from thrilling theme park fun to serene walks by the lake at sunset. When is a good time to visit Kissimmee? Anytime actually! However, I feel that the best time would be during the summertime, where you can soak in all the fun in the sun!!

I would love to plan my perfect Kissimmee gateway with my husband. Heck, I might even bring along my parents, my mother in law, sister, sister in law as well as her husband and kids!! Kissimmee would be a great place for a family reunion! There is just tons of things to do for everyone. I bet my dad, husband and brother in law would enjoy playing golf in world class golf courses while the ladies shop til we drop at the various prime outlets and factory stores. The kids would also have a swell time at the theme parks and water parks.

One place that I would really want to visit is Old Town. It's a shopping, dining, and entertainment complex that’s fun for all. Friday and Saturday nights feature their 18 year old tradition, the signature car cruises. Featuring over 300 classic cars, it's definitely a slice of Americana that I would not want to miss. Also I would like to go to at least one (more if possible)of Kissimmee's famous dinner shows. Be it Capone's Dinner & Show, Medieval Times or Arabian Nights, I bet they are all equally fun to go to. Another must see thing on my list is to take an airboat ride through the headwaters of the Florida Everglades as well as join one of the famous Kissimmee ghost tours! Ohhh how fun!

Finding a place to stay in Kissimmee that fits your needs is no problem at all. There are just so many choices. I would rent a vacation home that would accommodate my huge family. It will be great, with top of the range hotel like facilities as well as plenty of space for everybody to feel comfortable!!

Now that I have dreamed up my perfect Kissimmee getaway, I just hope that it will come true. Thankfully, I now have a chance to experience my dream vacation because Kissimmee is giving away three (3) weekend getaways (3 days/2 nights) for two (2); and two (2) week-long vacations for four (4). Drawings will be held on or around 4/1/09, 5/1/09 and 6/1/09. I have already entered the sweepstakes, you should too!! Who knows, maybe your perfect Kissimmee Getaway dream might come true too!!

Free KFC Grilled Chicken!!

Remember KFC's promotion when they gave out a free piece of their new Kentucky Grilled Chicken last Monday? Well, for those of you who missed out on that or found that it was too small a piece to hit a spot in your tummy, I got some great news for you!! I just found out that Oprah Winfrey together with KFC are giving out coupons for a FREE 2 piece Kentucky Grilled Chicken meal!! Yup, that's right. Two pieces of grilled chicken, 2 sides and a biscuit...FREE! Let me clarify that I am not getting paid by KFC, Oprah or anyone else for this post. I'm just excited that I found such a good deal and I would like to share this little piece of info with you guys :D

Just to go http://www.unthinkkfc.com/ and print out the coupon. Better do it quick, the coupon is available for printing only between 11am EST 5/5/09 to 11:59pm EST 5/6/09. You can redeem the coupon at any participating KFC nationwide from 5/5/09 til 5/19/09. Please bear in mind that the coupon is not valid on 5/10/09 because its my birthday and you should be out celebrating it with me instead of going to KFC. I have already printed out my coupons, you better go and gets yours soon!! Who says there is no such thing as a free meal these days? Thanks KFC and Oprah!! Guess what the Podanys are gonna have for dinner tomorrow? :D

Happy Cinco De Mayo!

Happy Cinco De Mayo!!

(now please excuse me while I do some tequila shots...)

Charter's Free Gift Card Sweepstakes!

I was surfing around the Internet in search of good cable bundle deals when I came upon Charter. I was instantly drawn to the website, it contains clear information and it's also easy to use. Charter offers it's customers an opportunity to build service bundles that meets their needs. Not only does it allow us access to all the services that we need but it also saves us money! Charter is now creating new bundle offers for more ways to save on home entertainment.

As part of that campaign, Charter is attracting new customers and rewarding existing customers by giving away gift cards! You will have a chance to enter Charter's Free Gift Card Sweepstakes for the whole month of May! How, you might ask? Well, just visit www.charter.com/giftcards/ to enter for a chance to win a $5,000 gift card grand prize or four weekly prizes of a $1,000 gift card. Winners can mix and match gift cards in $500 increments from various restaurants, clothing stores, departmental stores, home improvement stores and many many others!! This contest is open to anyone and there is no purchase necessary. However, there is an added bonus to new and current customers who orders anything online at Charter.com throughout the month of May. They will be automatically entered to win and will receive $75 or $150 in gift cards depending on their bundle selection.

Charter is constantly trying to keep up with the latest trends. There is a great way to keep up with the latest from Charter, get valuable deals as well as access great sweepstakes. Follow Charter on Twitter at www.twitter.com/chartercom. Charter has created a buzz around its online contests. In April it gave away an HDTV a day, including a grand prize of a home theater system and one year of free Charter Digital Cable® service with HD programming. Last year it gave away laptops and Xbox 360 game systems. Not only that, one customer drove away a 2009 Honda Civic Hybrid!! Isn't that exciting? Go ahead to check out Charter's website and join their Free Gift Card Sweepstakes now!! I have already entered, you should too!!

Kentucky Grilled Chicken

When it comes to fried chicken here in the States, we are not big fans of KFC. They are really greasy, tiny in size, a tad bit salty for our taste and a little bit more expensive than other fried chicken places around these parts. There are just so many other places that serves way better fried chicken. We were driving by KFC the other day and I saw a banner that says that they now serve Grilled Chicken! Hmmmm...I wonder if it's any good?

We were deciding on what to have for lunch today and remembered the KFC Grilled Chicken. So, we headed to our friendly neighborhood KFC to check it out.

They had a few combos available. I think the most popular is the 2 piece chicken with 2 sides and 1 biscuit for $3.99. We ordered the 10 piece bucket meal ($17.99). It comes with two large sides and four biscuits. We were listening in to the conversation between some of the people in line and they seem to like this new grilled chicken and gave a lot of positive feedback.

There were six different sides to choose from - Mashed Potatoes & Gravy, Cole Slaw, Mac n Cheese, Corn on the Cob, Baked Beans and Potato Wedges (certain outlets have Green Beans as well as Seasoned Rice too). We chose Corn on the Cob as our first side. Three large corn on the cob. It was alright, nothing to shout about.

Kevin chose Mashed Potatoes & Gravy as the second side. He thinks that the KFC gravy is the best ever. I prefer the Mashed Potatoes & Gravy from Popeyes but Kevin swears by KFC. Oh well, I guess different people are entitled to their own favs :P

The biscuits are not too bad. Pretty much the same as any other fast food biscuits. My all time favorite biscuits are the biscuits from Red Lobster. I guess Red Lobster and KFC are in two separate leagues all together, so I shouldn't compare :P

Now for the main event. The all new grilled chicken! It smelled real good ( we were like salivating all the way home in the car) and it looked pretty good too. It was still a little bit oily (though not as oily as the fried chicken) but it tasted just alright. It wasn't bad, but it's not like the best grilled chicken I have ever tasted. Of course if I compared it with the fried version, this is wayyy wayyy better.

Overall, I would say that the new grilled chicken is a healthier and tastier option if you compare it with the fried chicken. However, the chicken pieces are still way smaller compared to other chicken places and KFC is still a little bit more expensive. I would order the Kentucky Grilled Chicken if I had to choose between the regular KFC or this, but I wouldn't go all the way to KFC just to get it. It's not bad but it's not that good either :D

Chocolate Chip Cookies

It's been a while since I baked anything, so I decided to make some Chocolate Chip Cookies a few days ago. This is a real easy recipe, nothing fancy, just a basic Chocolate Chip Cookie recipe that is easy to make and yummy to eat.

You would need some flour, granulated sugar, dark brown sugar, baking soda, eggs, salt, butter, vanilla extract and some semi sweet chocolate chips.

First, measure about 2 1/4 cups of all purpose flour into a bowl. Combine it with 1 teaspoon of baking soda.

Add in 1/2 teaspoon of salt and mix all of the ingredients well. Set the mixture aside.

In a separate bowl, beat two eggs. Add in about 1 1/2 teaspoons of vanilla extract and mix it with the eggs. Set that aside once you are done.

In a large mixing bowl, add in 2 sticks of butter (room temperature), 3/4 cups of granulated sugar and 3/4 cups of brown sugar.

With a mixer, cream the mixture until it's fluffy.

Add the eggs mixture into the large mixing bowl. Continue to mix it all up with the mixer.

Next, add in the flour mixture into the bowl. Continue to mix it all together until everything is incorporated.

Once that's done, add in 2 cups of semi sweet chocolate chips. You can also add in walnuts, pecans...basically any type of nut that you like. Fold all of that in with a spatula.

Line your baking tray with parchment paper. Using an ice cream scoop and a tablespoon, drop the dough onto the baking tray. If you like smaller cookies, use two teaspoons and drop smaller dough balls on the baking tray instead.

Pop it in the 375F oven for about 12 minutes. Once it's done, remove the tray from the oven and allow the cookies to cool on a wire rack. Since I do not have a wire rack, I just allowed it to cool on my chopping board.

There you go! Freshly baked Chocolate Chip Cookies. It's so easy to make and definitely yummy to eat!! :D

Assam Curry Catfish

I was chatting with a friend on MSN the other day and she commented that most of the recipes on this blog are "western food". She asked me why I don't blog about the Malaysian/Asian food that I make. Welllll, the answer is simple. I am not that great in making Asian food (compared to my late grandmother, aunties and other Malaysian ladies that I know). Back in Malaysia, my family goes out to eat every day, hence I didn't really have a chance to learn much about Asian cooking. Whatever little that I know about Asian cooking is what I picked up in this recent years. However, I do try to cook something Asian at least once or twice a week (sometimes more, but there is only so much the Gwailo hubs can take :P).

Most of the curries that I make are store bought ready made paste and not made from scratch. I bought this "Tean's Gourmet Assam Fish" paste from a Malaysian grocery store a while back. I decided to give it a try for dinner tonight to see if it's any good. I personally like the taste of assam curry fish better than lemak curry fish. I guess it's the sourish sweetish taste, I don't know :P

From the directions on the back of the package, it looks easy enough. It even says that it will be done in 15 minutes! All you would need is some fish ( I used catfish fillets), one onion and some okra. You can also add in one tomato if you like.

Heat up some oil and saute some chopped garlic and onions.

Once it's almost done, add in the assam fish paste. Mix it up with the garlic and onions. Continue to cook it for a bit. By now, you should be able to smell the nice familiar assam fish curry smell...yummy! At this point, I added in some sugar. I like it when it has little hint of sweetness and it also 'neutralizes' the spiciness of the curry. Both Kevin and I are not really fans of super spicy stuff :P

Pour in about 400ml of water.

Allow the mixture to cook until it boils. Add in the catfish fillets. I love to use catfish fillets in curries because of it's nice and smooth texture. It taste somewhat like stingray when you cook it with curry.

Next goes in the okra. If you are planning to add in tomatoes, this is the time to pop them in.

Mix everything together and allow it to simmer on high until everything is cooked through.

After that, turn it down to medium/low heat and allow it to cook for another 5-10 mins. With that, the Assam Curry Catfish is done!! :D

I served it piping hot over steamed white rice and a few pieces of egg omelet. I love it when my rice is all 'flooded' with curry. That should be the way to eat a good curry :P I was really surprised that it tasted like those authentic assam curry fish that you can get in Malaysia. It doesn't taste like it came from a packet at all. I will definitely get more of this paste from Tean's Gourmet. It's really good.