Don’t pick on people, pick berries more productive

There are all sorts of people in the world. Good, bad and the ugly. An ugly and bad type loves to pick on others. Have you come across people like that? There was one stage in my life when I was working with a corporation where I was always being picked on. Why? All because I was not a graduate and they (the colleagues who were graduates) used this fact to doubt my qualifications. That was not true, but trust me, it is no fun being picked on. I was miserable. Fortunately, instead of feeling sorry for myself, I worked harder and did my job well and proved to them, (and more importantly, others) that I was worthy of the post. Eventually I earned everyone's respect.  Looking back I later realized that the reason for being picked on was due to fear and perhaps some jealousy as my work began to get praise from management and clients. It often is true that some people can only focus on their competitors by raising doubt and by criticizing instead of by focusing on their own performance.
People who pratice this are actually unable to compete, and are afraid of their own shortcomings. They lack confidence in themselves. 


I would advise that if someone is picking on you, tell them to go pick berries. Let them know that it is definitely more productive than picking on you. At least they can eat the the berries but they can't eat you. LOL!

The very first thing I did after I arrived California was to go pick berries.

I had to do this touristy photo thing. It accurately portrayed what I knew was to

come with fresh berries in hand.

In an ocean of green, searching for the little flavor packed ripe blueberries

Blueberries ripening on the vine

Luscious freshly picked raspberries

This is my idea of a truely wonderful "menage a troix"

When I saw all the beautiful red raspberries and strawberries and the dark blue, healthy looking blueberries, they made my heart sing. I made a berry pie from the berries I picked for our dessert that evening.

"Sawyer" looks on while I make the pie crust

When I got a nice compliment from my step son in law, it was worth all the effort.

The best reward is to see that everybody finished their piece of pie. 

If you care to have the recipe, here it is.

Berry Pie

Sorry for the inferior photo quality. This was taken in the evening with my handphone.

Ingredients:

Pie Filling:

1 cup raspberries

1 cup blueberries

1 cup sliced strawberries

2 tbs flour

½ brown sugar

1 tsp ground cinnamon

1 tsp ground nutmeg

Pie Crust (Click to get the recipe)


Method:
Put berries and brown sugar in a pan on medium heat to melt the sugar. Add in cinnamon, nutmeg, flour and mix well. Pour berries mixture into the pie crust. Preheat oven at 180 degrees C and bake pie for 30 minutes or till pie crust is brown. Serve with vanilla ice cream.

A promise is a promise

I am sure you have heard this phrase before, “Promises are meant to be broken.”  This concept does not exist in my book. For me, a promise is a promise and demands fulfillment or at least a best effort. I have no respect for people who make empty promises. To me, people who make empty promises are not much better than a con artist. Like my Quay Lo often says, such people are "all talk, no do". On close examination people that casually break a promise, or worse, make promises with the full intention of not keeping to their word, will repeat. Some people approach pathological behavior, and will lie through their teeth to get what they want. Sometimes, their moral decay is so great, they will lie or misrepresent even when they don't have to.  I have been thus "conned" many times throughout my life as I am sure many of you have as well.  I have come to believe that this is all because of my own weakness. I too easily trust so called "friends". 


Just recently, I trusted one of my son’s friends who is pursuing a career as a real estate agent. I should have known I should not have trusted him when he asked me to write the commission to his name instead of to his company. That was a clue right there and how stupid of me it was to ignore that sign and comply. I think I did that because he is my son's friend and because the deal involved another agent, a relative of his. I favored this young man when I was shopping for an investment property. I felt like I wanted to encourage his career and to his credit he had done some leg work in finding a property suitable. So subsequently, I was pleased when he got a tenant for that property even though it was for a six month lease instead of the year term that I wanted. As it turns out I now know that he had not represented me well and in fact, he and his relative caused a lot of misunderstanding between the tenant and me. I "rolled with that" however,  so all was ok because I gave what the agent promised (without my consent) to my tenant and he was happy. 


The tenant who is an expatriate had stayed in my property for three months, when he text messaged me yesterday. In the text he said he had left the country in a hurry, citing a "death in his family" and had left the keys with his agent (the relative mentioned above). The note told me to get the keys from that agent (who is not my agent). I called the agent and told him to put things right, and at least get a termination letter from his client but he asked me to "speak nicely to him with the right tone of voice." I argued that I was and was intending to be firm. I was already feeling victimized by his client and him. Then, he told me he was "not in the mood to talk to me" and hung up on me. 


Now I have to roll back a bit. This guy was angry with me from the very beginning of the deal. The reasons initially involved not agreeing to some of the terms he had submitted to us with this client. (Little did I know he had already mis-represented the terms to the client in the first place.) In addition, he wanted me to pay my agent another half month commission on top of the half month paid to him for the six months lease should the tenant renew another six months. The commission was shared between my agent and him. I found out from other agents that there was no such rule that the Landlord had to pay commission to real estate agent for renewal of lease and my lawyer confirmed that. Furthermore my Quay Lo pointed out that the agent was asking for a commission promise without assuming any risk of the outcome.  Of course I told him that I do not agree. He made his displeasure very clear. I suspected that was why he behaved so badly with me when I called him. I was VERY upset and almost exploded but then I remembered what my Quay Lo told me. He said we will always make the wrong decision when we get mad but if we stay cool, we will be on the winning side. 


Haha so, I stayed  very cool and here I am writing this post, sharing the demo by Chef Ryan Khang (click to find out more about this young handsome promising chef) at Jaya Grocers last Saturday and his Berries Pie recipe with you.  It was a promise I made in my earlier post to share the recipe. A promise is a promise and I have to keep it. Moreover it is better to feed my eyes with Chef Khang's beautiful pie and feel happy than to feed my soul with anger and feel bad, don’t you think? 

Blueberry and Raspberry Pie (8 inches pie)

By Chef Ryan Khang (with slight amendment)

Pastry Dough:

250gm plain flour

40gm sugar

15gm walnut, roasted and blended

110gm butter

50gm water

10gm salt

1 cup blueberry

2 cups raspberry

Almond Cream:

4 tbs unsalted butter

4 tbs suger

4 tbs beaten egg

3 tbs almond powder

¼ tsp vanilla essence paste

Custard Cream:

4 egg yolks

50gm sugar

2 tsp cornstarch

2/3 cup milk

2 tbs unsalted butter

Method:

Pastry Dough:

Mix all the ingredients together until a dough is formed. Roll out dough to 3mm thickness. Cut dought with a pastry cutter and place into the pie pan.

Almond cream:

Cream unsalted butter and sugar with a wooden spatula. Add beaten egg and almond powder and vanilla. Mix well and make almond cream paste.

Custard Cream:

Mix egg yolks, sugar and cornstarch until creamy white. Add lukewarm milk and unsalted butter and cook over high heat until it becomes thick and creamy. Leave aside to cool.

To Assemble

Pour almond cream onto pie pan.  Add the custard cream and spread evenly. Add in the berries and bake in a preheated oven at 180 degrees C for 35 to 40 mins. Cool on rack.