It’s not what you might be thinking! Let me clarify that I’m just talking about food here. A cheat recipe. Putting it nicely, it’s a culinary shortcut. You take a pre-made or boxed item and modify it to make it your own. Another way to call this is semi-homemade. It saves tons of time for lazy people like me but can still fool family or guests into thinking how great my cooking skill is. I’m all for semi-homemade food but can never watch Sandra Lee. For whatever reason, I just can’t.

So I cheated when I made this lemon fruit pie with pre-made pie crust and instant pudding mix. It was one of those rare occasions that I consider my food creation a success. Of course because it’s not 100% made by me.

If you feel like cheating, here is my secret pie recipe, just for my blog reader. Please note that this recipe makes 2 pies, so save one for me.

INGREDIENTS

Crust
2 pre-made refrigerated pie crusts

Filling
2 – 8oz cup of lemon flavor yogurt
1 – 8 oz sour cream
1 box (4-serving size) lemon flavor instant pudding and pie filling mix.
2 tablespoons orange marmalade

Topping
Strawberries, cut in half
Raspberries
Blueberries
Kiwifruit, peeled, thinly sliced
2 tablespoons orange marmalade

DIRECTIONS

1. Make pie crust as directed on box. Cool completely, about 30 minutes.
2. Prepare instant pudding filling as directed on box.
3. In medium bowl, mix filling ingredients with wire whisk until well blended. Pour into cooled baked shell. Arrange fruits on filling.
4.  In small microwavable bowl, microwave marmalade uncovered on High 5 to 10 seconds or until melted. Brush over fruit. Refrigerate about 1 hour or until set before serving.

Enjoy!

Summer is here! I hope we will get the sip the pool water more often this summer then last year. Not that I love swimming, because I don’t. I just want to see my family have fun playing in the pool for which I contribute money every month.

Ricky has won prizes in swimming. And I am his shame. I made up every excuse to ditch mandatory swimming classes in high school.

“My forehead feels kinda hot and I’m getting some sort of body chills. Cough, cough. Do you think I should swim today?”

“Urg! My blood work came back from the lab tested positively allergic to chlorine.” Good try Iris!

“Well, it’s that time of the month…and I can’t.” But how often could I use this excuse?

When I ran out of stories, I’d be floating on the 4-ft side of the pool. Okay…I lied again. I didn’t know how to float (and I still don’t!). When the rest of the class was working on their four styles, I was on the far other side of the pool, practicing my sinking-then-fighting-back-to-the-water-surface skill. I am thankful that I had finally graduated from college and no more humiliating swimming lessons for me. They were my biggest fear. Worse than public speaking. Yes, it’s that bad!

I can proudly tell you that being the wife of a good swimmer, I can finally swim. But only if my feet can touch the bottom of the swimming pool.

We left our house late and by the time we got to the trail, it was 11:30am. Walking under the sun at noon is not that great of an idea. Plus taking good photos at that time of the day is such a challenge. So we concluded our mini-hike after walking about half a mile.

They found snails!

A pretty one…

Recently, I fell in love with card-making.  While it’s definitely easier to go out and buy a card, it makes me a much happier person after making one. This week, I am three times happier as I made three cards for my kids’ daddy and grandpas. When I was done making them, I put them inside my drawer. I couldn’t help but open the drawer throughout the day and say, “Hello cards, stay pretty. I love ya’ll!”.

The downside of making your own cards? I spend way too much time staring at them smiling. And It is just too hard to give them away. Another thing is I fight with Annabelle over who does which part. To let go and to accept imperfection is something for me to learn during the process. This time, I did let Annabelle stick the gems on. Her eyes sparkled with mine as we saw these finished cards. Happy Daddy’s Day!

Stories about kidnapped or missing children give me chills.

One day Annabelle and I walked pass a bench on our way to the grocery store. I saw an ad about a child who has been missing for 9 years. My heart muscles tightened up again. I stopped and told Annabelle about this girl. I told her this little girl cannot be with her mommy and daddy now probably because she did not follow her parents closely and someone took her away. She might have died or bad things might have happened to her. So the two of us stood there in front of the bench and we prayed for the little girl.

A true life lesson is more powerful than a thousand lectures. For the next half an hour we spent in the grocery store, Annabelle would not go 5 inches away from me. I wonder what will the next teachable life lesson be?

Now meet Annabelle by Annabelle…

I love spending time with clients at their engagement sessions. As opposed to the portrait time on a stressful wedding day when every tick on the clock counts, an engagement session is much more relaxing and fun. Honestly. This is the time when I bond with my clients and laugh with them just about anything.

I still remember how much fun we had at Kristina & Eric’s engagement session.This was the scene that made me laugh. They found a booger fell on the ground and tried to examine it.

Here’s me in action. Ricky said the way I hold my camera looks so uncool. I KNOW! But what can I do about it? I’m like one of those old ladies who feel most comfortable wearing ankle length slacks because if I’m comfortable, then I won’t change. So don’t scream next time if you see me walking around with a pair of ankle length trousers.

Just if you’re curious, this is what I was looking at…

I always walk around in public with stickers over parts of me that I can’t see. Elbow, hair, back of neck. If you have kids, you know what I’m talking about. I’m just grateful that they’re not stickers that say “My daughter is an honor student” on my behind. This time I got something new on my back. A piece of colorful yarn that was tied neatly through the holes of the back of my sweater. The yarn that I use to wrap gifts and make cards. “Hey, thank you Annabelle for decorating me with a piece of yarn. I look awesome!”

Looking cute in front of my camera is her expertise.

Thank God for holidays! He gave us a weather-perfect Memorial Day weekend, sunshine with temperature in the 70’s. When is a better time to hit the theme park? So we had some Lego fun with a few friends yesterday at Legoland. As usual, any ride that doesn’t stay on the ground is too much for Annabelle to handle. Christian, however, loved the actions. He asked to go on the rides but he wasn’t tall or old enough. It sure feels good to put work down for a few days and spend it with family.

The following two images were taking inside the theater with no flash when they watched the Bob the Builder 4D show. It was dark like you really couldn’t see much. But I saw the kids were looking funny with their glasses on, so I tried taking some shots. I cranked the ISO up to 25600, took a deep breath, and then shot with my bare hands at a shutter speed of 1/6 s. The most challenging part was to focus in such low light. So I had to switch to manual focus and then hoped for the best.