Scenic Sunday: Central Garden at the Getty Center

I'm a bit late this week but I was a teeny bit busy. Anyway, I went to The Getty Center last Saturday and took a few photos. Hope you'll love them! To learn more about my trip visit Traipsey Turvey.

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The 350th Post

Television has opened a new world for me. In as much as I would love to blog and take pictures, read and even scrap, I always find time to stay glued to the boob tube. Because I am a couch potato, I have learned a lot of really interesting information. Like, did you know that electric current came about during the "Current Wars" between Thomas Edison and Nikola Tesla? Betcha you didn't know that Nikola Telsa invented AC (alternate current) which angered Thomas Edison who had invented DC (direct current). Tesla is one who is not really known to most people. Of course if you played the game Command & Conquer, you would recognize the Tesla Coil named after Nikola Tesla, the inventor.

How about knowing the beginnings of the vampire? We all know that Bram Stoker wrote the novel Dracula in 1897 which started the modern day vampire. However, there IS a person who inspired this novel and they called him Vlad the Impaler. Records show that he impaled his enemies and victims (women and children) when he defeated them and it is from this person that the Dracula was born.

I guess this proves that I do love watching The History Channel. I could just go on for days and days. They do feature a variety of subjects that really interest me like The Universe, Modern Marvels, Tech and others. My favorite however, has got to be Cities of the Underworld with Don Wildman where he explores the worlds greatest cities underground. Pretty interesting, huh? Well, I thought so.

Yes, I'm blabbing. It's just that this entry marks my 350th (yes!) post and I thought I would write about random things that are on my mind right now.

I know this sounds so weird but I do love obscure information that everyone thinks is useless. I'm not that good when it comes to trivia, though. But I'd like to think that I can converse with different people about a wide variety of topics. So, what is your favorite show? Share them here!

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Recipes: Chocolate Chip Muffins

I love baking although I have stopped doing it for about three years. Oh, it wasn't because I was on a diet; I constantly am, but it was because I just hated doing aftercare. You see, I am messy when I bake and tended to bring out all the baking equipment and spread them on the dinner table.

So much for that introduction. Anyway, my mom decided to make Raspberry Muffins from the raspberries from our trip to Riley's Farm last Saturday. Because I didn't enjoy the fruit that much, I decided to make my own snack, Chocolate Chip Muffins. They turned out really great! In fact, I'm eating one right now. Yummy!

Ingredients
2 cups all-purpose flour
3 teaspoons baking powder
½ cup white sugar
½ teaspoon salt
1 cup milk
⅓ cup vegetable oil
1 egg
1 cup mini semi-sweet chocolate chips
*Optional: Frosting

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees F (205 degrees C). Grease bottom a muffin pan or line pan with paper cups.
   
2. In a medium bowl, combine flour, white sugar, baking powder, chocolate chips, and salt; mix well.
3. In a small bowl, combine milk, oil and egg; blend well.
4. Add dry ingredients all at once;stir just until dry ingredients are moistened. Batter will be lumpy.
5. Fill muffin cups ⅔ full.
6. Bake for 20 to 25 minutes or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean.
7. Cool. *Optional: You can top of muffin with a frosting of your choice. (I used Whipped Vanilla Frosting for this Muffin).
   
8. Serve warm.
9. Enjoy!

I really loved how the muffin is not too sweet. The chocolate chips in the muffin is already sweet enough for me. Oh, and I added the vanilla frosting to it so I'm good!

Hope you'll like this recipe!

More Muffin photos HERE.

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Paying Post

For the past few months, I have been successful with earning a little bit of money while I blog. Sure, I’ve joined a few companies that pay you to blog about products and/or services in your blog but only two have gained my trust and both of them are one hundred percent trustworthy. Unfortunately, finding trustworthy companies are hard to come by these days and a since a lot of bogus “blog for money” websites are rapidly popping up these days, finding a good company is quite a hassle.

This time, I was invited to join another company, Paying Post, that has a platform similar to “get paid to blog” sites. I looked into their FAQs and ABOUT page and they look promising. This is the first time that I have signed up with them and I am getting quite a positive feedback from the company.

What makes this platform work is that a lot of advertisers today shell money for blog advertising. With the increasingly number of people online and with more high speed Internet connection, going online is a breeze thereby having advertisements in a variety of blogs can really help. To find out more about this service, visit http://www.payingpost.com.

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I drank Rat Tea...

...and LOVED it! Now, don't go bug-eyed on me! I didn't actually drink rat tea but "the year of the rat tea" or Rat Zenfusion (on the overhead menu). Naturally, I chose the year of the because I rat was the animal attributed to the year I was born.

You might be wondering where in the world I found a tea with rat in it. It was a few months back where my friends and I stopped by Borders in North Vine Street, Los Angeles but it was closed. Beside the bookstore was a cafe; the Zen Zoo Tea Cafe, and we decided to buy coffee and wait for the bookstore to open. Little did we know that we entered a hallowed halls of the Zen Zoo Tea Cafe.

We were thinking about getting a regular cup of coffee when we found that their overhead menu had different offerings. There was tiger, rat, monkey, snake tea and so on. We were at a crossroads and didn't know what to order. The lady behind the counter guessed at our puzzlement and offered us a free taste of their tea. I was mildly surprised by the Rat Zenfusion but I loved it!

Rat Zenfusion Tea meant sensitivity, sociability, and wisdom, as was written in the overhead menu. Delish! It was just my cup of tea (pardon the pun)! Of course my friends picked tea from their own birth year and we decided to taste each one of them. Nahhh I must say I loved the Rat Zenfusion better than theirs.

I give my experience five stars!

Location
Zen Zoo Tea Cafe
1517 North Vine Street.
Hollywood CA 90028
323-962-9969

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