Our vegetable produces abundant zucchini this year. My husband mentioned that one of his co-workers has made breads using zucchini. So, I googled. I found Paula Deen’s Zucchini Bread recipe. It turned out great! The only thing I did differently is using less sugar (I use 2.5 cups, instead of 3 cups).

Even after living in the US for almost 10 years by now, there are still a lot things that we haven’t tried and we still don’t know about this culture. Everyday I learn something new, and I like it!

One thing I’ve learned after becoming a homeowner is that houses settle. Inevitably, there will be cracks on walls, and no surprise, we have a few cracks on our walls. I’ve been staring at this huge crack on our front bedroom wall for over a year. Finally, I fixed it. It is actually quite easy to fix drywall cracks by yourself if you don’t mind cleaning up the dust and mess afterward. I found this helpful Patching Drywall Tutorial here.

One crack done, and 16 loose nail heads to go!

We watched the movie “Julie & Julia” two nights ago, and I instantly fell in love with the movie (to be precise, the food in the movie). So, I googled, like I always do with anything that I’m interested. I found this link that has the recipes from the movie: http://www.delish.com/cooking-shows/food-tv/julie-julia-movie-recipes

We harvested a lot tomatoes from our vegetable garden, so I tried the ‘Bruschetta with Tomatoes and Basil’ last night. OMG! It tasted so so so good. Instead of toasting the bread in the oven, I pan-fried the bread in butter, like the way Julie did in the movie. This way, the bread is crunchy outside, and stays soft inside. Plus, butter just makes everything taste 10 times better. I found these tiny pearl-sized mozzarella cheese balls, and added to the tomato/basil mix. It gives the bruschetta a nice color contrast, and more texture!

We have many white IKEA furniture in our home. I like their simplicity and functionality, but I always think they need a little something extra. I went to Cost Plus World Market yesterday to look for a futon sofa for our guest bedroom, and I found these cute knobs. I purchased a few of them and installed them on our IKEA white furniture. They instantly dressed up our furniture!

I don’t find the knobs on World Market website. They are only available in stores.

Lately, many of our friends and relatives are having babies. To welcome the new babies, I got some super cute beanie and bib sets from my favorite children clothing company, Bunny and Bee. Their designs are so metro-hip, unique, and always make me smile!

Our vegetable garden is doing quite well this year, especially the squashes. We kept finding mega zucchini in our garden. Last year, we barely had any zucchini because the naughty squirrels ate most of them. This year they decide that our neighbor’s plums are more tasty. So daily, I can see them carrying plums, and passing by our vegetable garden. It is almost like they are trying to send me a message, “Zucchini is so last year. See, plum is our new favorite". I feel bad for my neighbor. I hope they can have some plums left.

This is my brother’s second son. He is almost 2 years old, and loves following his older brother around. He is crazy about “Thomas the Train". My mother bought him a “Thomas the Train” shirt from the US when she visited me last time. It has become his favorite shirt. He would ask everyone to look at his shirt, and say “Tom-ma-she….Tom-ma-she…” (his Chinese pronunciation of Thomas). Super cute!