Jaded's Kitchen

Cooking: Szechwan Style Steamed Beef

2010-12-27T17:53:00.001-08:00

With Christmas over, I'm finally able to cook more often again.

One of Justyn's favorite dishes to order at South Legend (our favorite Szechwan restaurant) is steamed beef. I was only able to find a couple recipes online but one seemed like the closest to what we had at the restaurant.

Link: http://sunflower-recipes.blogspot.com/2010/01/steamed-beef-with-roasted-rice.html

Since I had the day off I took care of a bunch of errands and made this dish for dinner. It turned out very strongly flavored as it should be but I think I may have overdone it with the peppercorns. My mouth is totally numb right now but it's worth it overlooking. I can't wait for Justyn to come home and try it :)

Christmas Vacation

2010-12-25T21:15:00.000-08:00

Since Justyn was taking some time off this week I decided to do the same. We didn't have a trip planned or anything so it was really great opportunity to relax a bit and hang out with friends.

I think this was on Tuesday but Kris, Karen and I met up at Dave & Busters for some video games and dinner. We also met up with Alex & Kate but they were pretty beat from work earlier so they only had dinner with us. I ordered the sliders, wings & fries platter. Total indulgence but hey.. I'm on vacation!

The next day I started to catch a cold but decided to go out to lunch anyway with Alex, Kris, Karen, Reid and Justyn. We went to BCC Enterprises aka Jojo's BBQ aka Ghetto Q. They make the best ribs, chicken & sausages. I wasn't very hungry so I ended up getting a polish sausage with some beans and potato salad. That may already seem like a bunch of food but a normal combo order comes with two choice of meats, bread, potato salad & beans. It's super delish and although I didn't get a picture of the food, I did snap a picture of who I think is one of the owners outside tending to the meats.

After lunch, Justyn went out while I wrapped his presents.

The next evening, Justyn and I went to Santana Row to walk around and grab dinner. We went to a new place called The Counter which is a burger joint. You get to customize your burger out of all of the different ingrediant combinations which is a fun idea. I ordered a chicken burger with Russian dressing, herbed goat cheese, organic mixed greens, grilled onions and bacon. Justyn ordered a regular burger with his own toppings and we shared some sweet potato fries & onion strings. They also allow customized drink combinations but our waiter came by super fast so I just ordered a vodka tonic and Justyn had some beer. Suprisingly they had Devil's Canyon beer there so he got their Scotch Ale.

For Christmas Eve we had a few people over for drinks and appetizers. I had my sister and Justyn open up a gift. I got my sister a Henkels knife set and Justyn got a Citizen Eco watch that he had been eyeing. Karen got me a huuuge booze shaker which I used to make some dirty martinis. For dinner we went to Jubba's which is a Somalian restaurant. They make a fantastic chicken suquaar which is what Janice, Dave and I ordered. After that we went back to our house to hang out a bit more before everyone headed home.

The next day was CHRISTMAS!! My favorite holiday of the year. Justyn had woken up super early because he was on call so a few hours later he came in and woke me up. I was super excited and couldn't go back to sleep so we started unwrapping gifts. In addition to the watch, I got Justyn a taxidermied squirrel and the Mark Twain autobiography which he mentioned wanting a while ago. He was super stoked with his gifts which made me happy :) Justyn got me a leather jacket and a mattress pad warmer which we're trying out tonight. My sister got me a necklace from my Amazon wishlist.

I also made tomato and feta baked eggs for brunch from a recipe I found on closetcooking.blogspot.com. I overcooked the eggs a little bit but it still tasted fantastic.

For dinner we went to my mom & dad's house. My mom made some t-bone steaks, salad, a potato dish and dessert based from Holland. We also celebrated Oscar's 3rd birthday. All in all it was a really nice day. I'm rounding it out by watching Elf :D

Weekend Update

2010-12-19T17:01:00.001-08:00

On Friday we went to Devil's Canyon brewery. We tried a few of their beers before heading over to a taqueria across the street for dinner. After that we went to Old World spirits. I'm not a big gin fan so I let Justyn do the tasting. I had a couple tiny sips but didn't like their gin but their absinthe was amazing.

On Saturday, Karen had planned a surprise birthday dinner for Kris. He probably assumed that dinner would be just Karen and him but she invited Jen, Stefano, Reid, Chloe, Justyn and I. We arrived there about an hour early so we went to a nearby dive bar called Hi Dive. There I had the best dirty martini. It wasn't overly salty and strong like I've had in the past. At around 7:30 we walked to Palomino's and met up with Reid, Chloe, Jen & Stefano. Around 8:00, Kris and Karen arrived and he definitely had a surprised look on his face when he saw us. Four bottles of wine, dinner and dessert later we found ourselves back to Hi Dive for a night cap before heading back home. It was an awesome night filled with great conversation and good times.

Today we caught up on some much needed sleep before going to Cafe San Jose for brunch. I had the breakfast sandwich with country potatoes which were delish! I’m normally not a breakfast person so for me to say it was good, actually says a lot. Justyn ordered the pancake sandwich which came with eggs and bacon. After brunch we went to see Tron which was a really great movie. It was definitely a lot better than the original filled with tons of action and breath taking CGI.

We’re probably going to take it easy for the rest of the evening, eat leftovers for dinner before going to bed early for work tomorrow. *sigh* One more day until vacation!

Our Christmas Tree

2010-12-14T22:31:00.000-08:00

I'm finally posting a picture of our Christmas tree. This year has been seriously hectic trying to get Christmas presents ordered, wrapped, cards created, mailed out, etc... I am seriously ready for a break next week. I love Christmas with a fierce passion but sometimes it gets overwhelming. I never want to leave anyone out when it comes to Christmas cards so I've been trying my best to crank them out. Next year, I'll definitely get them started waay sooner. Maybe even starting January 2011. Hey.. don't judge me.

Suprisingly we got our tree decorated in less than half an hour. No joke. I was shocked and disappointed. I really wanted to take our time and make it an enjoyable thing but we had so few decorations that it went by super fast. Don't get me wrong, it was still fun but I wish we made it an event or something. We've decided on a tradition of picking out a random ornament each year so that we have less and less ball ornaments. That means every year that passes, the tree will mean more to us than ever before. Cheesy right? Ah well..

So here it is... our tree :)

Weekend Update: Christmas Tree & Party

2010-12-05T17:48:00.000-08:00

On Friday we went to our local tree farm to pick up our Christmas tree. At first I was really drawn to the little ugly ones that nobody would really want but Justyn wanted a bigger one so we settled on the one he's carrying in this picture. I love how he lifted it above his head like it was no big deal as the worker's jaws at the tree farm dropped open haha. For dinner we went to Olive Garden. I know what you're thinking, why? I used to love Olive Garden but I think my taste buds have matured so I wanted to go back to see if I'd still like it. I still enjoy their salad and soup but other than that, I probably will never go back.

On Saturday we went to Julie's house for a Christmas party to participate in a white elephant gift exchange (we brought a can of WD-40 & a box of zip ties), and hang out with peeps we haven't seen in a while. It was really good to see everyone while enjoying dinner and drinks. Justyn made corn pudding and I made some brussel sprouts which were suprisingly gone by the time I checked on them after everyone had gotten dinner.

Today, Justyn and I went to brunch at Happy Bamboo which we thought was a vegetarian place but it's actually vegan. I had the noodle salad with veggie egg rolls and some neon bright pink looking stuff which probably was supposed to represent the chicken in the dish. It tasted good though which was a relief. Justyn had the dream burger which had the consistency of a fluffly fish filet. I actually liked the food we had and wouldn't mind going back. After brunch we ran some errands and picked up some groceries for tonight's dinner. Justyn has really wanted to make ratatouille for a while now so that's what he made. It turned out so savory and fantastic that I didn't mind eating vegatarian twice in a row today. I balanced it out by making some garlic rubbed parmesan bread to go with it. Now I'm watching The Abyss and about to have a slice of red velvet cake for dessert and relax for the rest of the night. It was a great weekend and I'm pooped.

Cooking: Italian Bread Soup with Escarole

2010-11-30T19:18:00.001-08:00

It has been a looong while since I've cooking something and I suppose it has been because I've been stressed out lately but nothing seemed better than a nice comforting bowl of soup tonight for dinner so I made Italian Bread Soup with Escarole. There's something about white beans, leafy greens in a nice tomatoey broth right? Not only that but it has the toasts on top which were topped with a really nice grated parmesan and broiled in the oven. Oh yeah... and the crispy bits of pancetta really rounded things out. Salty and crunchy :9

I started out by crisping up the pancetta in my dutch oven. I removed them and let them drain on a paper towel while I added a chopped onion and 3 chopped cloves of garlic.

The directions say to let the onion and garlic get nice and golden before adding the rest of the ingrediants but I was busy topping the baguette slices with cheese and let the onions and garlic get a little brown (OK.. I burned them a bit :P). I gave the onions a quick stir to get them to stop sticking to the bottom of the dutch oven before pouring in my chicken stock, canned chopped Italian tomatoes, oregano, pepper & escarole.

The escarole needed to be cooked down a bit for 5 minutes so I took that opportunity to pop the baguette slices in the oven to get toasty. Keep an eye on them! They don't take 5 minutes on broil and you will burn them. I let them broil for about 2 1/2 minutes and they came out perfect. I thought I started to smell something burn so thankfully I pulled them out on time.

Once the toast was done, I added the white beans to the soup, seasoned it with salt and let everything simmer for 15 minutes before serving.

Italian Bread Soup with Escarole

Ingrediants:

1 oz. chopped pancetta

1 chopped medium onion

3 cloves of minced garlic

4 cups reduced sodium chicken broth

14 oz. chopped canned Italian tomatoes

5 cups of chopped escarole (1 bunch)

1 1/2 tsp. dried oregano

salt and pepper to taste

30 oz canned cannellini beans rinsed and drained

4 oz sliced Italian baguette

1/3 cup grated parmesan cheese

Directions:

1) Set dutch oven on stove over medium heat and add some olive oil. Once the dutch oven has heated through, add pancetta and brown for about 2-3 minutes. Once the pancetta has browned, transfer to a paper towel to drain.

2) Add the chopped onion and let it cook for about 5 minutes before adding the garlic and let them cook together for another 5 minutes. Once they are golden (don't burn them like I did), add broth, tomatoes, escarole, oregano and pepper. Bring everything to a boil, reduce to a simmer and cover the dutch oven. Simmer for about 5 minutes.

3) While the soup is simmering, set oven to broil, put sliced baguette onto a foil lined cookie sheet, drizzle with olive oil, season with salt and pepper and top with parmesan cheese. Put the cookie sheet in the oven and broil for 2 1/2 minutes. Keep an eye on it! Take out of the oven and set aside.

4) Add the cannellini beans to the soup and simmer for another 15 minutes.

5) Ladle soup into a bowl and top with a couple baguette slices and crispy pancetta and serve.

The Day After Thanksgiving

2010-11-27T16:12:00.001-08:00

Yesterday we drove up to Jen & Stefano's house in Boulder Creek for dinner. Jen made homemade turkey noodle soup and Karen whipped up a batch of jalapeno and white cheddar biscuits. Both were made from scratch and amazingly delicious. I can't stop thinking about how good it was and I could sure use a bowl right now :9 After dinner we enjoyed some hot toddies (which I didn't like) and some spiked hot chocolate with Godiva liquer (super comforting for the very chilly night) while playing Mad Libs.

Happy Thanksgiving!

2010-11-25T20:47:00.000-08:00

Today we went over to my mom's house for Thanksgiving. She made an incredible spread of food including not only turkey but CRAB! My mom let me eat some of the brains which were so decadent and lovely I almost died. We also had some veggies that my sister made, tiny deviled quail eggs with bacon, my all time favorite sticky rice, and homemade bread. We broke out a nice bottle of Sullivan wine that we had gotten in Napa during our last trip there. For dessert my sister made a cranberry pudding and my mom made cheesecake. It was all so delicious and I'm surprised that I haven't passed out yet.

While the food was being cooked we hung out..

Here's the spread:

I'm so thankful to have an awesome family, loving husband and a mom that is as much of a foodie as I am :) She cooked her ass off today and I love her for it!

Iron Chef Challenge: Battle Chicken Breast

2010-11-14T16:37:00.000-08:00

The day after airsoft, Jen and I decided to challenge each other in a cooking competition with chicken breasts. As you know, I haven't had a lot of cooking posts lately and it's mainly because I've been practicing the recipe. I wanted to make a Thai inspired dish and I eventually settled on doing Thai Basil Chicken. It didn't seem like a very original idea and since we were going to be judged on that criteria, Justyn came up with the idea to do raviolis. Originally we boiled the ravioli in salted water but I upped the ante by frying them instead. Since the sauce I made, inspired by Top Chef Hosea, got so many rave reviews in the last Iron Chef competition, I decided to make it again. I'll post all the links to the recipes after the pics.

Yesterday we drove up to Jen & Stefano's house for the competition. We arrived early to help set up. Eventually people started arriving and we had one of the guests flip a coin to see who would cook first. Unfortunately, I was picked to go second so Jen got cracking on her dish. She and Stefano (we were allowed a sous chef), cooked a chicken breast roulade with mushrooms and broccolini. I ended up getting to taste her dish way later in the night and thought the flavors were fantastic. I'm going to ask Jen for the recipe so I can make this sometime. The chicken was juicy and the mushrooms which had a wine sauce (?), tasted so comforting and savory.

Kris took great pics of the plates.

Next up to cook was Justyn and I so into the kitchen we went to whip up our dish. I ended up making a chicken skin gremolata which had the skin deep fried and chopped into thin strips, Thai basil, green onion, cilantro and thinly sliced and seeded Thai red chilies. Justyn arranged the fried ravioli on top of the coconut orange ginger sauce and we topped that with the gremolata. We also put some blanched bok choy on the plate just to lighten the dish up a bit but I think it ended up not being necessary.

So onto the results. Karen, Kris & Prentice were our judges and I won! I'm super stoked :D Big thanks go out to the judges for giving me the win and to Jen and Stefano for hosting.

PS - We went to Ogisan for lunch before going to Jen & Stefano's house. It was mediocre at best but I took pictures of it to share. We also went to California Cafe for lunch with my family since it was my mom's birthday. It was pretty good but I'm too tired to type anymore so just enjoy the pics :)

Recipe Links
Thai Basil Chicken: http://www.thaifoodandtravel.com/recipes/baschi.html
Coconut Orange Ginger Sauce (substitute heavy cream with coconut milk): http://www.foodandwine.com/recipes/sesame-crusted-tuna-with-ginger-cream
Chili Sauce: http://steamykitchen.com/5068-hainanese-chicken-rice.html

More Christmas Cards!

2010-11-11T21:04:00.000-08:00

I think this is a better way of posting my Christmas cards rather than do them one at a time. That would take forever! So here's the next batch of cards that I made in the past few weeks.

Cards Blog Challenge: Thanksgiving Placecards

2010-11-09T14:54:00.000-08:00

Last week I made a Thanksgiving placecard for the Cards Blog Challenge. Here's how it turned out. I did something similar to this last year but thought it came out way better this time around.

Vegas Weekend!

2010-11-08T17:37:00.000-08:00

This weekend Justyn and I went to Vegas to meet up with peeps that participated in SEMA and to celebrate our 4 year anniversary.

We started out by checking into our hotel and doing a little gambling on a $.05 machine. I put in a dollar and won $.20. Yay!

Here's our room. It was decent for what we paid. Our bed was against the window and had remote control curtains which gave us access to a nice view.

After we were settled in to our room, we met up with Kris and went ziplining down Fremont Street. I was super nervous but after a couple drinks, I calmed down enough and did it. It was super fun and I wanna go back and do it again at night when the Fremont Street dome show thingy is on. We met up with another one of our friends, Dave who had taken our pictures from the balcony of the Fitzgerald bar. I don't have the pictures yet, but I'll edit this post and show you guys if he let me use his pics.

We then went to the Hard Rock for dinner at Johnny Smalls. I've been craving their tapas style American food ever since we had it the last time we ewre in Vegas. Soo delish!

After dinner we all went to the Stratosphere where Justyn and Kris wanted to jump off of the top! And they did!

The next day we went for dim sum at a local place that was recommended to us by a friend. It was pretty good and authentic which was comforting.

After that we went back to our hotel to gamble a bit before heading over to Erik's suite at the Bellagio. His room was soo pimp. It had 3 bathrooms!

We went to dinner after meeting up with Imelda, Dave & Erik at the Grand Lux Cafe. This place was supposedly founded by the same guy who opened Cheesecake Factory. The food was really good and we were primed for partying the rest of the night.

After dinner we went back to Erik's hotel to have some drinks before going downstairs to gamble.

The next day Justyn and I had brunch at our hotel which was mediocre at best. Then we gambled a little more and then went to the airport to wait for our flight. We hung out at Tequilaria and had a few beers before flying home.

Man.. I'm completely wiped out but we had such an awesome weekend with friends and fun. Can't wait to do it again!

Halloween 2010

2010-10-31T12:57:00.001-07:00

We had so much going on for Halloween this year. Not to brag but we got invited to 6 different parties. There was no way we could make all of them so we went to whichever one we were invited to first. The first party started on the 23rd which was at Jason's house. Then on Friday, we went to Catherine's house. The highlight of the night was a group of guys dressed up as a team from Justice League. There was The Flash, Superman, Batman and Green Lantern. Unfortunately I didn't have a chance to take a picture of them as a group but I got shots of most of them. The food was great too. Catherine and her dad made fried wontons which I helped stuff with cheese and pork. Of course we made our pulled pork pizza rolls which were a hit as usual.

Oh yeah and here is the pumpkin Justyn carved. My pumpkin didn't turn out the way I wanted so I ended up throwing it away.

Last night we went to Julie's house for her Halloween shindig. She really went all out with the decorations. She even decorated the garage which turned out awesome. By this point my battery was really low so I only got a few pictures. I'm hoping I'll see some of the pictures that other people took and hopefully I'll be able to post them here. The best costume was Jack from Jack in the Box. He put so much time into making the ball head that it won me over.

Tonight I'm going to be getting over this massive hangover and practicing my Iron Chef dish. Wish me luck!

Weekend Update

2010-10-26T20:53:00.000-07:00

I haven’t done one of these updates in a while and I know I should’ve since I’ve had things to blog about but was just too lazy and unmotivated to do so.

Last Friday, Justyn and I went on a date. We saw Jackass 3D in Cupertino. Honestly, I could’ve gone without seeing the movie in 3D. It just made it more.. gross. I’m glad we finished our popcorn during the previews and the first 15 minutes of the movie because I seriously lost my appetite.

Unfortunately, we had dinner scheduled right after the movie and although I lost my appetite, it came right back as we were pulling into the parking lot of Bistro Tupaz. The place is a little weird because you order at the counter and pick up your own silverware but don’t let that deter you from trying this place out. Don’t let these terrible and crude pictures make you run away too. They were taken with Justyn’s phone and the lighting was bad hence the unjustice.

The first thing that arrived at our table was the house bread. I want to say it’s a focaccia but it was much lighter than what I’ve had. It was fluffy and delicate yet dense at the same time and had a somewhat sweet and savory thing going on. Confusing right? But oh sooo good. It came with some butter that I think was infused with goat cheese which paired really well. I had to control myself and just have half a serving of the bread so I could save room for our entrees. Justyn ordered the sausage with polenta and I had the braised beef short ribs which was served with mashed potatoes and root veggies (beets and carrots). Surprisingly, I enjoyed the beets. The short ribs were super tender and did not require any knife work. I don’t really like sausage, but it was really nice. It wasn’t dry on the inside and packed a ton of flavor. I hesitate to even post these pictures but I need them to break up this boring post hah.

Later on that night we tucked a dry rubbed pork butt in the oven for a 12 hour nap so that we could make pulled pork pizza rolls for Jason’s Halloween party the next day. I’ve posted about these things so many times before so I won’t bore you with the details. We hadn’t seen Jason in a really long time since he’s been in China for work and his fiancé so it was really nice to see him again and hang out. It wasn’t so much a dress up kind of party so I’m glad I didn’t go all out. I would’ve been the only person in costume. I got to meet Bill & Flo’s baby, Shamus (sp?) which was adorable! He almost made me want to start having kids. ALMOST. Calm down. We had fun drinking and eating some really great food prepared by Jason. He made some chile verde with roasted veggies, chicken (which I don’t think I got to try), salsa and guacamole made by Matt and some awesome cake with some decadent cream cheese frosting for dessert :9 Oh yeah and we found out that night that the Giants are going to the World Series!! Woooo!

Cooking: Healthy Lemongrass Chicken & Noodles

2010-10-18T18:21:00.000-07:00

I really needed to go back on my diet after this weekend's indulgences. I managed to eat an entire thing of Panda Express (chow mein, veggies, beef & chicken), had my way with beverages... I was really thirsty for some reason and didn't really do anything except for helping Justyn clean up the garage a bit. Since I was "bad", I decided to go back on my diet and hardcore it this week. I had some yogurt and a Subway breakfast sandwich for breakfast, for lunch I had a frozen food and for dinner I decided to make some lemongrass chicken with noodles. It's not a very authentic recipe but the varying flavors were all there. Justyn thorougly enjoyed it. I was barely 1/4 of the way done with my dinner when he had already inhaled his plate. He also said I could make him this dish anytime, he enjoyed it so much.

So here's the recipe and accompanying photo.

Lemongrass Chicken and Noodles

2 tbsp peanut oil
1 chicken breast, cut into 1-inch pieces
4 medium scallion(s), green and white parts, chopped
2 tbsp grated lemongrass (I used store-bought tube form instead of fresh)
4 medium garlic clove(s), minced
1 cup(s) fat-free chicken broth, reduced-sodium
2 Tbsp low-sodium soy sauce
1 lime zested
1 lime juiced
1 tbsp Sriracha
1/2 package of spaghetti cooked
1/2 cup(s) cilantro, leaves, fresh, coarsely chopped

Mix the broth, soy sauce, lime juice, lime zest and Sriracha together in a bowl.

In a cast iron pan, add the peanut oil and heat on high. Add the chicken and cook until golden brown on all sides.

Add scallion, lemongrass and garlic and stir-fry for 1 minute or until fragrant.

Add the mixture from the first step and simmer for about 4 minutes or until chicken is cooked through.

Add the mixture to the drained spaghetti and mix until combined. Then serve.

Christmas Card Update

2010-10-14T19:36:00.000-07:00

Instead of making a bunch of posts about the Christmas cards I've made thus far, I decided to put them all in one. Saves a lot of time so I can make more right? You might've already seen a few of these but I retook pictures of them anyway. I'm not so concerned about friends or family seeing this since they won't know which one they're getting, so enjoy!

49ers vs. Eagles

2010-10-12T17:59:00.000-07:00

On Sunday Justyn and I went to the 49ers vs. Eagles game at Candlestick Park in SF. It was his birthday present. Based on all the cheering and disappointing sighs I'm assuming he had a good time despite having the 49ers lose. This was the first football game that I've ever been to and the crowd and game were amazing. Having been to a game now, I can say that I'd much rather watch it at home. I can see the action better without having someone in front of me hold up annoying attention whoring signs (trying to get on TV). Plus I can do without the standing in line for a quarter of the game just for some mediocre garlic fries. Oh and leaving the parking lot was a nightmare. We had fun though.. more importantly I think Justyn really appreciated it.

Anyway, here are the pics.

Cards Blog Challenge: Halloween Card

2010-10-06T21:05:00.000-07:00

I really needed some card therapy tonight so I decided to participate in the Cards Blog Challenge this week. This week's theme was Halloween Cards. I made a similar card last year but came up with a new sketch and this is how it turned out.

Airsoft Weekend

2010-10-03T16:26:00.000-07:00

This weekend we went up to La Honda where Stefano's grandparents cabin is to play airsoft. I didn't end up actually playing but I have to say this was the weekend I needed. It was so quiet and peacful.. just what I needed after a very stressful week.

We arrived Saturday morning and hung out while everything was being set up.

Meanwhile, I had breakfast with a lovely view on the woods.

I was supposed to be the photographer for the day but I wussed out and didn't want to be accidentally shot nor get lost so I headed back to the cabin and hung out there. In fact, I did get shot on purpose by Justyn so I knew it hurt.

For dinner, Jen made turkey burgers (nom!), with all the fixins and afterward we played Spoons.

The next morning we helped clean up and headed home towards Five Guys for some burgers and fries. Delish! If you're wondering... it's waaaay better than In N Out. Most noteably, their pickles are the best I've ever tasted in my life and contribute to making a lovely burger.

It was such a fantastic weekend. Thanks to Kris for driving and Stefano and Jen for inviting us. Stay tuned for Iron Chef in November :)

Justyn & Dad's Birthday Dinner

2010-09-28T18:44:00.000-07:00

On Sunday my mom made a beautiful spread of sushi and other fixins for Justyn and my dad's birthday. It was all so good. She made unagi rolls, spicy tuna rolls, and California rolls along with tuna, fatty tuna and salmon sashimi served on a large salt block. There was also a stir fried potato and bell pepper dish, quick pickled cucumber, natto, tofu, some weird tasting baby eggplants and onion salad. If you guys think I'm a good cook (which I'm not), you should see my mom's cooking. Amazing!

Cooking: Moroccan Chicken Meatballs w/ Couscous

2010-09-28T18:33:00.000-07:00

I really felt bad that Justyn has been cooking a ton and all I've done is make some pizza rolls for parties so tonight I decided to make dinner. Justyn requested chicken meatballs so I looked up a recipe and was intruiged by this Moroccan style dish.

It's actually a fairly healthy recipe but the flavors came out so bold. I'm not missing anything.. well I guess the only thing I would change would be to make a bit of roux with the veggies so that the stew came out thicker. It's fairly soup without it.

Moroccan Chicken Meatballs w/ Couscous

Ingrediants

1/4 cup bread crumbs
1 lbs uncooked ground chicken breast, skinless
1/4 cup onion grated
2 tbsp pine nuts coarsely chopped
2 tbsp parsley, fresh flat-leaf chopped
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp ground ginger
1/2 tsp table salt
2 tsp olive oil
3/4 onion chopped
2 medium garlic cloves chopped
3 medium plum tomatoes diced
1/2 tsp ground cumin
3 1/2 cups reduced-sodium chicken broth
14 dried apricots halved
2 medium carrots cut into 1-inch chunks
1 tbsp honey
1/4 tsp red pepper flakes
10 oz cooked couscous, plain variety
3 tbsp sliced almonds

Combine the bread crumbs, chicken, onion, pine nuts, 1 tablespoon of the parsley, the cinnamon, ginger, and salt; mix well. With wet hands, shape the mixture into 12 balls.

Heat 1 teaspoon of the oil in a nonstick Dutch oven over medium-high heat. Add the meatballs and cook, turning occasionally, until browned, 6–8 minutes. Transfer to a plate.

Add the remaining 1 teaspoon oil to the Dutch oven; stir in the onion and garlic. Cook over medium heat, stirring frequently, until golden, about 8 minutes. Add the tomatoes and cumin. Cook, stirring occasionally, until the tomatoes are softened, about 5 minutes. Return the meatballs to the Dutch oven, then add the broth, prunes, carrots, honey, and crushed red pepper; bring to a boil. Reduce the heat and simmer, covered, until the flavors are blended and the meatballs are cooked through, about 20 minutes. Stir in the remaining 1 tablespoon chopped parsley.

Transfer some couscous to a bowl, add the meatballs, ladle over some of the soup and garnish with chopped parsley & sliced almonds.

Cards Blog Challenge: Leaves

2010-09-24T17:01:00.000-07:00

This week's challenge on the Cards Blog was to create a card using leaves. I actually didn't have a plan going into this one and it sorta just formed itself. I hand drew and cut out the leaves and used a background woodgrain stamp to stamp and emboss a strip of vellum for some added interest. When I stuck on the leaves and added the sentiments the right side of the card looked really naked so I added the same woodgrain stamp from the vellum with some Versamark ink & added a row of zig zag stitching. I then took a tip from Kristina Werner and rounded the bottom corner. Much better right?

NAC: Congrats!

2010-09-22T19:34:00.000-07:00

I came up with the sketch for this card a couple days ago and thought it'd be a pretty easy card to create and film. Unfortunately while I was making it, I quickly found out it was a lot more difficult than it looked. With that said, I obviously decided not to film it plus I want to get an arm extender for my tripod and camera before I film anymore. It'll look a lot better when I do and I promise I'll make a lot more videos. In the meantime, here's the card.

Happy Birthday Justyn!

2010-09-19T13:27:00.000-07:00

This weekend we went to Napa with Erik, Imelda, Dave, Dave, Mat & Janice to celebrate Justyn's birthday. The weather was beautiful, the food was lovely and the company was even better. I couldn't have asked for a better trip.

We started out by driving to Napa on Friday and going straight to Castello di Amorosa which is a castle winery.

After the castle we went to Buster Burke's for lunch/dinner. Everyone was amazed that the habanero BBQ sauce they had was actually spicy. My tongue was burning for a good 20 minutes after trying a small bite of it.

In the evening we took advantage of the hot tub and since Justyn doesn't particularly enjoy water, he went next door to play some Texas Hold Em.

The next morning we went to Hwy 29 Cafe which is about 5 minutes from the Gaia hotel where we stayed.

Shortly after breakfast, we were picked up by our driver, Toby. We started out at V.Sattui which was already very crowded but we were finally able to taste some of their wines.

After V. Sattui we went to a much quieter and tranquil winery called Sullivan. I was pleased to see that the owner was there to greet us and led us through the tasting. He had to run off and tend to some wines so he had one of the employees finish the tasting. These wines were absolutely amazing and Justyn quickly decided to buy a couple bottles. The property itself was very pretty too.

Alpha Omega was next on the list. Toby reserved a table for us on the terrace which made it possible for us to enjoy the tasting and weather at the same time.

At this point I was feeling really tipsy so I don't even remember what winery we went to after Alpha Omega but this place also had a beautiful propery with bocce ball courts as well. The group went in for a tasting and apparently I was not invited inside due to me being inxoicated so I played bocce ball outside with Toby while we waited for everyone to finish up.

For dinner we went to Bistro Jeanty and had a very memorable meal. We started with escargot and roasted bone marrow on toast points. For our entrees we ordered a creamy mushroom risotto, beef bourginon, pork and one other dish that was out of this world. For dessert we ordered bread pudding and rice pudding one of which had a candle lit to celebrate Justyn's birthday. It's no wonder that Bistro Jeanty is my number one absolute favorite restaurant. Everything was so delish!

Cards Blog Challenge: Accordian Wreath

2010-09-13T19:32:00.000-07:00

Today I made an accordian flower out of some Cosmo Cricket patterned paper. The accordian flower is pretty simple and I know some tutorials out there tell you to cut two strips of paper and then stick the two togethre to create a flower however if you shorten the width of the paper, you only need one strip. I needed a smaller accordian flower for this card so that's exactly what I did. All you need to do is score a 12" x 3/4 (up to an 1") strip of paper every 1/4". Then fold it along the score lines and adhere two ends together. When you press down into the circle you can manipulate how big the hole is in the middle. The first time I tried making the wreath, it didn't look right with a tiny hole so I stretched the circle out. I tied a tiny red bow on top so the recipient would know that it's supposed to be a wreath and not a flower. I used one of Kristina Werner's Finally Friday cards as a layout.

Justyn Cooking: Tomato Sauce from Scratch

2010-09-13T18:32:00.000-07:00

Last night my mom gave us some tomatoes that she had so tonight Justyn made his delicious and simple tomato sauce from scratch. He had read an article in Bon Appetit magazine which featured this recipe.. if you even want to call it that. All you do is saute some diced onion and garlic in some olive oil then add halved cherry or Campari tomatoes and give them a good smash. Add some salt and pepper to taste and basil during the last minute of cooking and there you go.

He served it over some angel hair pasta (by request from me). This is seriously another favorite of mine that Justyn makes. Yummmm...

Izakaya Mai

2010-09-12T20:48:00.000-07:00

For Justyn's mom's birthday we went to Izakaya Mai in San Mateo for dinner.

We started off with some Gomae-Ae which almost had a miso-y sweet flavor to it. Then we had some natto with maguro which was bland compared to when we make it at home. It lacked the saltiness from soy sauce & that slight bite from the mustard. Next we had Agedashi tofu which was lovely and silky. After that the tako yaki and okinomiyaki came out. The tako yaki was divine but the okinomiyaki turned out a little too soggy for my taste. We also got some fish cake which was grilled and topped with some spicy mayo. I really liked this dish despite its simplicity. The yakitori chicken came out next. With a squeeze of lemon juice, the green onions were a really nice combo with the chicken. Yaki onigiri came out next. I thought it was just going to be a rice ball but it had some fish roe in it which made it even better. We also had grilled eggplant topped with miso paste which was surprisingly nice. The skin on the outside was charred so it had a crispy texture to it. After that we had some grilled squid which was a nice change of pace. Of course I couldn't go without ordering the Hamachi Kama which is the collarbone of yellowtail.

Mountain View Art and Wine Festival & Jon's BBQ

2010-09-12T14:34:00.000-07:00

I was originally going to do just one update for the weekend but I'm bored while Justyn's watching the 49er vs Seahawks game so I'll just do a rundown of what we did on Saturday.

We went to the Mountain View Art & Wine Festival to walk around and grab some bites to eat. It was such a beautiful day.. almost too hot and if I hadn't been wearing painful wedges, I would've enjoyed it a lot more. I was a little disappointed that it was more of an art festival than art AND wine. Not to mention the high prices for everything. We still had a good time and not to mention some pretty decent food too.

After the festival, we went to Jon & Vera's house for a BBQ.

NAC: Thank You Card + Video!

2010-09-08T11:02:00.000-07:00

Cards Blog recently came out with a challenge to create a card making tutorial and since I hadn't broken out my Flip HD in a long time, I decided to participate.

I had actually made this card a while ago but didn't really like the way I stamped the sentiments so I redid it. In fact, I made this card twice last night so that the finished product would look a lot neater than how I was stamping in the video.

Hope you guys like it and vote for me! I'll post a link to Cards Blog once voting is available.

Wine Tasting @ Clos LaChance

2010-09-06T14:37:00.000-07:00

Today Justyn and I went to Longhouse Restaurant for a late brunch followed by wine tasting at Clos LaChance. I posted about a lovely Merlot that we picked up at Trader Joe's a while back that my friend, Erica helped make. Unfortunately she wasn't working at the winery today but we went there anyway to taste some of their other wines and pick up a shipment.

We were originally wanted to go to OD's Kitchen in Downtown Gilroy but they were closed due to Labor Day so we went to Longhouse Restaurant instead. I ordered the Gilroy Garlic Omelette which had ground beef, mushrooms and of course garlic. It had SO much garlic and definitely lived up to its name. Justyn ordered the chicken fried steak which came out not quite the way we expected. Look at that gray piece of meat... yuck.

After that we went to Clos LaChance winery. These are the wines we picked up.

It was such a nice and lovely day out for a relaxing brunch and wines. :)

Beer Tasting @ Kris'

2010-09-04T22:58:00.001-07:00

It seems like we've been on a beer tasting kick lately. First we hit up The Trappist, then yesterday we went to Beer Revolution and today we went to a beer tasting at Kris' house.

I looked up some good food pairings that would go with IPAs and the most common one happened to be pork so I decided to make some pulled pork pizza rolls. The recipe from foodwishes.blogspot.com came out so well last time I had to do it again. You start by liberally seasoning a pork butt with a dry rub, sticking that in an oven with two bowls filled with water and a splash of liquid smoke at 210 degrees for 12 hours. Since we happened to get home at 11:45pm last night, it worked out perfectly the day after.

The pork was so tender, I didn't even have to work to get the bone out. I shot a short video to show how tender and falling-off-the-bone goodness it was. I then gave it a rough chop and mixed it with some Sweet Baby Ray's Original BBQ sauce and a little salt and pepper to taste.

I put the mixture in the fridge to cool until we were ready to wrap them in pizza dough. Once they were wrapped, I topped them with sliced jalapeno and some shredded sharp cheese. I wanted them to be fresh out of the oven, so I ended up baking them at Kris' house.

There were so many beers that we tried but my absolute favorite was a stout called The Abyss. Kris brought out the #1 top rated beer in the world which I didn't catch the name of but it was gooood too. The food was awesome too :)

NAC: Birthday Wishes

2010-09-04T10:59:00.000-07:00

One of our friends flew in from Utah for a week long class and it just so happened that his birthday was yesterday. We went to Beer Revolution for, you guessed it, beers and today we're going to Kris' house for a beer tasting. Since the birthday boy is also going to be there, I decided to make him a birthday card. He had mentioned earlier that he wanted me to give him some bacon but I thought that might get a little messy so I made some breakfast on a card :) I was surprised at how easy it was to throw the felt embellishments together and that was probably attributed to the fact that bacon is not perfect.. nor are eggs. I added "birthday wishes" as the sentiment since that's kinda what he wished for. So here it is..

NAC: Yo Dawg!

2010-09-02T20:14:00.000-07:00

There's an internet meme that features Xzibit. I'm not even going to try and explain it but you can google it if you're curious enough. Those that know the meme might appreciate this Christmas card ;)

A huge chunk of my time went into making the envelope, though through trial and error I was able to figure it out (after going through tons of cardstock). I think I'm going to start using printer paper to test out my ideas before I use the more expensive stuff.

I actually messed up with the "YO DAWG" part so I had to cover it up with the green piece but it worked out in the end.

NAC: Christmas Already?!

2010-09-01T21:01:00.000-07:00

Yep.. this is the first Christmas card of 2010. I figured I might as well get a head start since I haven't been producing as many cards as I used to. I really loved Kristina Werner's MACM back in June (http://www.kwernerdesign.com/blog/?p=3407) so I decided to change it up and turn it into a Christmas card.

Unfortunately I had gone through my last sheet of red cardstock while practicing this card. (I tend to have a hard time going from sketch to the real thing so I have to play around with it in real life before I get it just right) I ended up having a 8.5"x3" strip left so I had to make due. It actually worked out in my favor. I found that the card worked better on a smaller area. Sweet!

If you haven't seen A Christmas Story (my favorite Christmas movie of all time!), you probably won't get it. It's from one the scene where the family's Christmas dinner is ruined cuz of the neighbor's dogs, so they have to go to a Chinese restaurant. The waiters try singing Deck the Halls but totally mispronounce the words. "Fa-la-la-la-la not Fa-rah-rah-rah-rah".. I'm sure I'm not spoiling the movie for anyone so don't get mad at me!

Cooking & Crafting: Piggly Wigglies

2010-08-28T12:20:00.000-07:00

Last week Justyn mentioned that he was going to a potluck so we decided on making bacon wrapped pigs in a blanket. Instead of wrapping Lil Smokies in crescent rolls, we wrapped them in bacon first. Unfortunately, that means you have to par cook the bacon wrapped sausages first because they won't have enough time to cook when you go to bake them with the crescent rolls wrapped around them.

The last time I made these I used 1/4 of a slice of bacon but Justyn wanted to double it up so they took twice as long to cook.

Since the theme of the potluck is "white trash", I decided to make a little sign to match. I had some jazz music playing in the background which somehow inspired me to make it a little country'ish. I don't know how that worked out but I like it :)

The Trappist

2010-08-20T23:29:00.000-07:00

I seriously felt like this week was a nightmare so it was a good thing that we had a trip to The Trappist in Oakland planned. It was nice to go out after a long week and hang out with friends, have some beer and nosheries.

I love this bar. I'm not a huge beer drinker but I instantly fell in love with the first few sips of Russian River Damnation. This was a damn good beer.. full bodied and easy to drink. I also tried a sip of Kris' Mikkeller Monks Brew and decided that it would be next one. Justyn ordered the De Ranke Saison which was suprisingly mild flavored. I really think I'm starting to like craft beers. I guess there's no going back to Miller Lite for me hehe..

To snack on, Kris brought some Blair's Death Rain Habanero Kettle Chips. I took a tiny nibble and my lips were burning for a good 20 minutes after. The guys were popping them like they were nothing. I have a feeling it's not gonna sit so well tomorrow..

Good times...

The food was decent too.

Afterwards we went to Tamarindo which is a tequila bar/restaurant to hang out for a bit before heading home. I'm wiped out but I had to share what was an awesome time before I go to bed.

NAC: Congratulations!

2010-08-18T19:29:00.000-07:00

Not much to say but I finally sat down tonight and made a card. I had seen a cute sailboat illustration from Pottery Barn Kids which was the inspiration.

Leyla's Birthday

2010-08-14T16:41:00.000-07:00

I was really excited that Leyla's birthday fell on Friday the 13th. Not only was it technically still a work day but it was a great start to the weekend. A lot of great food was made, noteably the beef stuffed blintzes (made by Katia), mac n cheese w/ bacon (made by Leyla) & red velvet cupcakes (made by Alison). I decided to make potstickers and even though they were completely devoured, I still feel like the ginger and garlic overwhelmed the rest of the ingrediants. Time to tweak the recipe and see if I can get it right!

I also got to meet some new peeps and talk to friends that I didn't get a chance to chat with much at OFGs party. Good times. Thanks Leyla and happy birthday!! :)

Eugeapalooza in SF

2010-08-14T15:33:00.000-07:00

One of my earliest food friends, Kevyn, tagged me in a note on Facebook about Eugeapalooza which was basically an event for food carts to battle it out to raise awareness for the San Francisco Food Bank. We arrived there way earlier than anticipated so we walked around Lake Merced while they were getting set up.

By the time we finished with our walk, most of the food was ready.

Naturally the first cart we went to was Kev's. He made Chicken Tikka Masala w/ Raita. The sauce had a lot of flavor and the cooling raita was nice. He even brought his son to help serve. Super cute :)

The second cart we hit was called Meat-Cheese-Bacon. He grilled up corndogs which was outside the norm of deep frying them. Later on, I noticed that he was grilling up some sliders but we didn't get a chance to try them.

I don't remember the order in which we tried the rest of the carts but here are the pictures. Everything was super delish. I kept telling Justyn "No, THIS is my new favorite!" everytime we tried something new.

On a side note, I got pooped on by a bird. Right after that happened, I was looking over at the Vietnamese crepe food cart and saw a HUGE ball of fire. One of the burners they were using had exploded and I'm sad to report that a couple of the chicks had gotten a lot of their hair singed off and had to go to the hospital. I hope they're OK though!

Thanks go out to Kev for letting me know about this event. My belly was so full of good food that I went into a massive food coma on the drive home. I had to do everything in my power to stay awake heh.

Justyn Cooking: Okonomiyaki

2010-08-08T16:01:00.001-07:00

Last week we went to Mitsuwa (a local Japanese store) for dinner and they had set up a stand to sell Okonomiyaki (Japanese pancake/pizza) along with the ingrediants to make it at home. We hadn't had it since the Japan trip so we immediately jumped on the opportunity to make it at home. They even had a little brochure with the necessary ingrediants and instructions.

I prepped the cabbage and green onion and Justyn did the actual cooking. It turned out soooo good!

OFG KS 2010 Party

2010-08-08T11:13:00.000-07:00

I'm really sad... this is a party that I look forward to every year and, sadly, it was the last one. I always get to see familiar faces and catch up with great people. Oh well, I guess this is an opportunity to keep in touch :)

I made Buffalo Chicken Dip which was devoured in no time. (Thanks Melly for the recipe! I changed a couple things but it's essentially the same)

Buffalo Chicken Dip

2 rotisserie chicken breast (from your grocery store)

8oz cream cheese softened

1/2 cup ranch dressing

1/2 cup Frank’s Red Hot

8oz shredded cheddar (save a bit of cheese to put on top)

Chop chicken (I did a fine dice) and mix with hot sauce, shredded cheese, softened cream cheese and dressing in a bowl.

Spread into an 8x8x2 baking dish.

Cover with aluminum foil and bake at 350 oven for 30 minutes.

Serve with crackers and/or celery/carrots.

Anyway.. it was good times. I'll miss every one of you if we never get to keep in touch.

Chunger did an amazing job with the photos. (Website: http://studio939.zenfolio.com/)

Cooking: Hainanese Chicken Rice

2010-08-04T17:47:00.001-07:00

I made this a while ago and had a massive craving for it. We were going to eat this last night but I ran out of time so I just cooked it for the next day. It doesn't tastes as good as the first time I made it but I suspect it's because I closed up the chicken's butt so the aromatics didn't have a chance to flavor the broth. The rice tastes better this time though. Justyn is loving the chili sauce too which is good.

Here's the recipe in case any of you are interested. This is one of those recipes that you must follow to strictly.. but I promise it'll turn out delish. http://steamykitchen.com/5068-hainanese-chicken-rice.html

Finally Friday Video Challenge: Birthday Card

2010-07-31T14:06:00.000-07:00

I always love when Kristina Werner uses stitching in her cards. It reminds me why I started cardmaking. With my uninspired mood, her card this week for her Finally Friday video jump started my creativity. What's weird is that I started making this card before her video came out. The candles on my first attempt turned out kinda chunky and ugly so I revised it so the candles were more uniform and clean. I then added a simple stamped birthday sentiment from my favorite papertreyink.com stamp set. As I'm looking at it, it could probably use something more but I keep telling myself to leave it alone.

Here's another version I finished the next day.

Cooking: Vietnamese Lemongrass Chicken

2010-07-28T18:18:00.000-07:00

From some of the ingrediants I got at this weekend's trek to the farmer's market, I cooked a Vietnamese Lemongrass Chicken recipe from rasamalaysia.com. I think I've become obsessed with getting this recipe so it tastes the same as latest and favorite Vietnamese restaurant. It's harder than you think. The first time I tried it, the chicken was bland and didn't taste anything like lemongrass. This time chicken turned out really yellow (from the tumeric in the impromtu curry powder I made). The sauce isn't even close either! I know the chicken at the restaurant is grilled but the recipe said to stir-fry it and also didn't call for it to be marinated. At the very least it's a pretty easy weeknight recipe and doesn't taste bad. Anyway.. back on the hunt for recipes. Well.. after I finish eating :)

Farmer's Market & Paula

2010-07-25T20:04:00.001-07:00

Today my sister and I went to Campbell's farmer's market which is supposedly the biggest in the area. We purused the stalls for ingrediants to make salsa & some lemongrass chicken. My sister ended up getting some heirloom tomatoes, cilantro and limes while I was only able to find garlic, green onions and shallots. It was still fun to look at the variety of specialty foods such as oysters and parmesan twists which were delectable.

After the farmer's market, we met up with one of my friends, Paula, that I haven't seen since college. We went to one of my favorite restaurants called Nam Vang which specializes in Cambodian noodles. I wanted them to experience my favorite noodles, so I ordered on their behalf which was simply a small #1. It consists of "dry" noodles, with some sauce, a variety of meats including liver and heart and a side of pork bone soup.

After a late lunch we went over to Valley Fair so I could return some Laura Mercier tinted moisterizer and to hang out at the wine bar in Santana Row. It was super chill and relaxed which is exactly what I needed after a crazy Friday night. I'm glad I got to reconnect with an old friend on a nice Sunday afternoon.

Cards Blog Challenge: Pinwheels

2010-07-22T19:16:00.000-07:00

Here's a pinwheel card I made for this week's Cards Blog Challenge. I didn't want to make a typical pinwheel so I googled how to make different kinds and settled on this style. I used Stampin Up's large tag punch and folded it so it resembled an origami style petal. Unfortunately it doesn't spin but I may make another one that will.

Awesome Care Package From Bri

2010-07-21T17:06:00.000-07:00

It was just another day at work when I received a package from Bri. It actually arrived two weeks ago at my house but it was sent back to her since I wasn't home to sign for it. I felt really bad about it because it must've cost a lot to resend it but I am SOOO grateful she did.

Here's what I got.

- A bird pen which I'll use at work.

- A cute little tote which held all the goodies.

- Some fabric tape. When I saw this I literally gasped outloud because I've been wanting to use this stuff on my cards!

- A few very cute stamps which have actually renewed my inspiration for cardmaking.

- A couple packages of cute fabric flowers.

- A lovely handmade card :)

- A green tea face mask which I may try out tonight!

- One of THE necklaces that I've been wanting for a very long time. When I saw it I screamed haha.

- Some apple candy which I gave to Justyn.

- A swirley black frame.

Bri... words cannot begin to express how thankful I am to have you as a friend and to get this amazing package. Thank you sooo much! It totally brightened my day. You better brace yourself for what you're gonna get! I'm gonna go balls to the walls out on it hehe.

Smoke Eaters & SJ Giants

2010-07-21T08:22:00.001-07:00

It's been a while since Justyn and I last went out on a random week night but we got free SJ Giants tickets from his mom so we decided to take Kris & my sister to go see the game. Before the game we stopped at Smoke Eaters for dinner. Between Kris & Justyn, they got three types of the hottest wings. I tasted each of the sauce with some celery and by the end of it, my mouth was on fire. Luckily I had some soda to put out the flames. They wolfed those wings down like it was nothing. From what I've seen on Man vs. Food, these wings can get super hot so I was amazed that they ate the wings like they jellybeans. My grilled chicken (California) burger was less that spectacular. I found it bland but that might've been because I had the beginning stages of a cold.

After dinner, I met up with my sister and we sat down for an "intense" game. The SJ Giants were playing the Stockton Plots (I think). Stockton ended up scoring 3 points in the 8th inning so we left early but it was fun hanging out and bull shitting. We ended up doing that more than actually watching the game.

Cooking: Cowboy Spaghetti

2010-07-14T17:29:00.000-07:00

I made this dish a long time for some friends and they really liked it. This is one of the few recipes that I've made from Rachel Ray's 30 Minute Meals but today I changed it up by substituting healthier ingrediants.

Her recipe calls for ground beef, cheddar cheese, spaghetti and bacon. I used ground turkey, reduced fat cheddar, whole wheat spaghetti & turkey bacon.

Justyn took one bite and said "YUM!". He rarely lets me know how my cooking is until I ask him so I know that he likes it.

Recipe: http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/rachael-ray/cowboy-spaghetti-recipe/index.html

Cards Blog Challenge: Monochromatic Card

2010-07-14T14:24:00.000-07:00

I did a monochromatic window card a few weeks ago and I didn't want to use white on this card. For some reason blue jumped out as the perfect color to use so I went with an oceany/sea theme. I kept it pretty simple since I haven't been as inspired as I have been in the past but hopefully Paige likes it!

Richard Cheese in Vegas

2010-07-13T13:54:00.000-07:00

The only celebrity I follow on Facebook is Richard Cheese and a while ago there was an updated posted that he would be doing a show in Las Vegas. We had seen him once in San Francisco and now was our chance to see him again. Justyn and I always said that if he ever performed in Las Vegas, that we'd go.

We booked a two night stay at Palace Station hotel. Unfortunately, I forgot to take pictures of the room before we messed it up but here's a view from our window. We got to stay in a nice suite on the 18th floor which was nice. I'm not a fan of the $15 a night charge in the fine print but oh well.

The first night and the day of the concert, I had forgotten my phone in the room so the only pictures I have are the day after. The show itself was pretty tame considering it was in Las Vegas and Richard Cheese was a lot more fun to watch in SF. We still had fun regardless. We had reserved a booth and the usher let us sit by ourselves since part of the stage was blocked off by the wall. We felt like high rollers having a booth to ourselves meanwhile everyone else was crammed together on crappy seats and boothes.

The next day we went to the Wynn for a buffet brunch. I'm not a fan of buffets and never have been but this was by far the best I've ever had. Some things were better than others such as the flank steak. It was juicy and perfectly cooked. The pickled herring was also decent. I think it would've been better if it were cold instead of room temperature though.

Thai beef salad, BBQ rib (not actually smoked or anything and rather bland), pulled pork on a fluffy cornbread topped with coleslaw, green bean stir-fry with beef, pad thai (bland), grilled mahi mahi with pineapple relish, flank steak, eggroll, potsticker, a bit of hashbrowns that Justyn gave me, pickled herring.

For the second round I got smoked duck salad, cheese pizza, more flank steak, pasta w/ shrimp, kimchee, tuna hand roll (gross), California roll, veggie roll and squid ceviche.

For dessert Justyn got an assortment of desserts. I can't remember exactly what he got but an honorable mention was the bread pudding. It was very custardy and served hot from the oven. I opted for a Snickerdoodle & a Bailey's panna cotta (blech).

We spent the rest of the day hanging out in our hotel room relaxing. Towards the afternoon and evening we played blackjack. I don't remember how long we played for but it quickly turned from noon to night. Since we gambled so much, I asked the pit boss if he could comp our meal at the Oyster Bar. I still haven't found out if the meal ever got comped but we charged it to our hotel room so we'll see.. Earlier while we were lounging in the room, I was watching an episode of Man vs. Food where he visited a place specializing in BBQ'ed shrimp. That instantly made me crave some seafood so I went on Yelp to see where the best seafood place was. The Oyster Bar jumped out with nearly a perfect 5 star rating. I remembered passing by the Oyster Bar the day before so that's how decided we were going there for a late dinner.

We ordered a bowl of clam chowder, oysters & etoufee. Everything was fantastic albeit the etoufee was extremely spicy. Justyn reminded me that I ordered it that way despite me having no memory of it heh. The food definitely lived up to the high rating on Yelp and I would be more than happy to pay for a meal there any day.

Needless to say that I'm thankful to be home and for bay area weather. The coolest temperature it got in Las Vegas was 90 something!

Weekend SF Trip w/ Friends

2010-07-13T11:34:00.000-07:00

On Friday I met up with Erik & Justyn at their work to carpool over to SFO to pick up a couple friends. We then left the airport to our the Baldwin hotel to meet up with a few more people. Erik drove us all to Papalote which is a Mexican place featured on Bobby Flay's Throwdown on Food Network. To be honest, I was thrilled with the food. I ordered the chicken burrito but later found out that their specialty is their salsa and a burrito called the Triple Threat which has shrimp, fish & carne asada. I had a bite of their carne asada from someone else's burrito and it was more like a juicy fatty steak which was unlike any other carne asada that I've ever had.

After dinner we headed back over to the hotel and walked over to the Irish Bank across the street tucked behind an alleyway for some drinks. Some of us headed over to Chinatown for an after party and some stayed behind at the hotel. I'm not allowed to show those pictures or videos so you'll have to trust me that it was a damn good time.

It was getting pretty late but I got hungry so Justyn and I split off from the group and went to Lori's Diner for some food. We ended up getting just about the least healthy thing on the menu which was fish & chips. It was surprisingly delicious and it quickly filled my belly up.

The next morning, we went to The Liberty Cafe for breakfast & mimosas. I ordered the Breakfast Basket which featured a selection of delectable delights. It had two mini croissants, scones & an apple pastry (which was my favorite). Justyn had the sausage and spinach omelette which was equally as good. Our waitress, Kelly, was amazing and extremely helpful despite the large group she had to deal with. If you go to Liberty Cafe, make sure you say hi. She's super nice and made our breakfast a delight. (If this sounds like a yelp review, it is!)

After breakfast, Erik drove us all to the Golden Gate bridge for some touristy stuff. I was amazed by the view and was almost blown away, literally. It was super windy where we were but it made things more fun.

We then headed over to the Haight district for some shopping before going to Calzone’s for some Italian food. After dinner, everyone went back to the hotel to get ready for clubbing. Justyn and I didn’t end up going because we had to catch an early flight out to Vegas the next morning. Talk about a crazy vacation right? I miss everyone so much and wish we had more time to spend together but I know we’re just a flight away and we’ll hang out again soon. Erik deserves special props for being our designated taxi driver and for taking us all over SF. Thanks man! We had a blast!

BBQ w/ Friends

2010-07-07T11:17:00.000-07:00

Last night I cooked stuff for friends which I mentioned in the previous post. I was so glad everything turned out well. Everyone enjoyed it so much which made all the stress and planning worth it. Kris took these pics from his iPhone 4. Not bad for a phone camera right?

Cooking: Potstickers & Thai Salad

2010-07-03T23:22:00.000-07:00

This Tuesday I'll be hosting a dinner party but I needed to practice the recipes before serving them to guests. I always tend to pick new recipes to try when I cook for other people which isn't always smart because I don't know how the dishes will turn out. I planned on making Potstickers, Thai Cabbage Salad, Jasmine Scented Rice & Grilled Lemongrass Chicken.

I grabbed a generic Potsticker recipe and tweaked it. The recipe called for chopping half a Napa cabbage and squeezing the water out. That didn't make sense to me because there's no way you can squeeze water out of cabbage without salting it first. When I used to help my mom make potstickers, she would add salt to the chopped cabbage to draw the water out before squeezing it dry. I then added that to half a pound of ground pork, chopped green onions, ginger, sesame seed oil, soy sauce & pepper. I didn't add any additional salt to the mixture since the cabbage was already pretty salty. I took a shortcut by using premade potsticker skins. They turned out pretty damn good for my first time. They were definitely no where near as good as my mom's but I was pretty proud of myself.

The rice was something I had actually made before and it's super easy. I just prepared the rice as normal and added a couple splashes of coconut milk before popping it in the rice cooker.

As for the Thai Cabbage Salad, it was just a lot of prep work cutting up all the veggies & herbs and making the sauce. I chopped up the other half of the Napa cabbage from the Potsticker mixture and added julienned red bell pepper, carrot and cucumber. I actually bought a mandolin just for this salad but it was a crappy cheap one so it didn't work all that well. I also intended for this to be a green papaya salad but the mandolin botched that up. Oh well. I chopped up some mint, Thai basil & cilantro as well. For the sauce I combined Sriracha, lime juice, palm sugar, fish sauce, soy suace, grated garlic & peanut oil. I topped the salad off with some honey roasted peanuts. It turned out really complex with all the different things going on but I think I need to work on the dressing a little more before it'll be perfect.

I didn't get a good picture of the chicken but that was just some drumsticks marinated in peanut oil, lime juice, lime zest, green onions, cilantro, garlic, ginger, soy sauce & fish sauce.

Wish me luck this Tuesday! I hope it all turns out good :D

Haircuts, SF & Franchino

2010-06-28T17:18:00.001-07:00

Ever since I moved out of my parents house (a loooong time ago), I've been struggling to find a hair salon that can cut my hair and style it in a way where I'll been happy with it. Nobody knows how to cut my hair! Well... now there is one place that does it right. My sister took me to a place in SF's Japantown. I was extremely happy with the results. The place is called Japan Center Beauty Clinic located in the Japantown's main shopping center. Of course I was very skeptical of this place because I haven't had a good experience with my hair to date. The hair stylist knew what he was doing though.

Before I show you pictures, I want to tell you what happened on the way to the salon. My sister was driving and we saw a guy on the sidewalk leaning against a crosswalk pole kinda wobbling back and forth. he stuck his foot out as we were stopped at the light. I told my sister that he was probably drunk but she didn't believe me so she rolled down my passenger window and asks the guy if he had been drinking. The guy denied it but you could clearly tell that he was intoxicated. After that he starts telling my sister that he loves her even as I rolled up the window and we started to move.

My sister was getting her hair permed so I walked around with Oscar to kill some time. When she was done, we drove over to North Beach to grab dinner. We ended up at a small restaurant called Franchino. She had yelped this place on her handy dandy iPhone 4G (which everyone simply drooled over). The owner of Franchino, who was a very friendly Italian guy, greeted us with open arms, almost as though we were family. We ordered a couple glasses of Cabernet, and a smoked mozzarella cheese appetizer. Janice wanted to know if they served buccatini pasta, but it wasn't on the menu and the daughter of the owner who happened to be our waitress, confirmed that they didn't have it. The owner, overhearing our conversation, rushes two doors down to buy a box of buccatini pasta just for Janice. Talk about going above and beyond! Our appetizer and entrees were amazing. Janice, who used to go to Italy on business, told me that the buccatini pasta was cooked perfect. I thought it was overly al dente, almost crunchy. The flavors were nice though.. very simple. I ordered the salmon fettucini with pesto sauce. Delish!

For dessert we went to a nearby coffee shop and got tiramisu (which I hate), some sherry & a cappuccino. The tiramisu was SO good! I was surprised and before we knew it, I had devoured half of it. By the time we were done with dessert we were pretty beat but I had to stop by the Rogue bar to pick up a Brutal IPA for Justyn before heading back home. It was such a relaxing and fun day in SF with my sister :D Thanks Janice!

This Is Why I Love My Mom..

2010-06-26T10:13:00.001-07:00

My sister brought some potstickers and hot & sour soup from my mom's house last night. You guys do not realize how much I miss my mom's cooking so this is definitely a treat :D

Reader's Choice Color Inspiration Challenge No. 4

2010-06-24T16:52:00.000-07:00

I haven't participated in a Kristina Werner Color Inspiration challenge in a while have I? I really loved the picture in this challenge.. so bold. Perfect for a more masculine card which I actually needed. This card is actually a 2nd attempt. I started stitching on the dark blue cardstock and really loved the contrast so I redid it in a way that made it the focal point. I hope the recipient likes it :)

Edit: Wow. Epic FAIL. The deadline to submit this card was earlier this afternoon. NooOoOoO.. Oh well.

The Best Vodka In The World?

2010-06-23T18:50:00.000-07:00

Justyn recently saw a video where Oz Clarke & James May went to Chase vodka to see how it was made and to do some tasting. He also stumbled upon an article where the same vodka was declared the best in the world. I wouldn't call myself a vodka connoisseur but I definitely drink it often enough to know what's crappy and what's decent.

Justyn ordered a couple bottles online so we stuck a bottle in the freezer to chill it. Tonight we gave it a try. Justyn didn't like it at all but once I took the first sip, I knew this stuff was good. It has less of an astringency feel than the other vodkas I've tried and it's smooth. Normally, sipping vodka straight will make me gag but this stuff doesn't do that. I can easily see why it was ranked as the world's best vodka. I also like the fact that the people who make this stuff don't take short cuts. It shows.

This vodka is pricey and will run you $45-$50 per bottle but I think it's worth it.

NAC: A Couple Cards

2010-06-21T19:13:00.000-07:00

I've been taking a break from making cards since nothing has caught my eye inspiration wise. That's kinda sad considering there are so many great cards out there. I've just been in a funky rut lately. Don't even ask me where I got inspiration for these cards. They kinda just happened.

I did, however, finish a birthday card for my friend Bri. I can't post that yet since she frequents this blog ;) I even used a stamp that I've never used before! You guys will just have to wait until next week for that card.

Leyla & Cormac's Party

2010-06-20T12:29:00.001-07:00

Leyla had just returned from a trip to Thailand, Cambodia & Korea and it was Cormac's birthday so they had a party at their house. I brought some Mediterranean meatballs which I honestly didn't really like but everyone else seemed to enjoy them so that was a relief. Leyla made some kimchi fried rice which I helped with and Cormac made some steaks which by the time they were done, my camera was out of battery. Ohwell... enjoy these pics instead :)

Epic Yosemite Trip!

2010-06-13T07:39:00.001-07:00

Justyn and I just got back from the best Yosemite trip evar. We went on the trip with a great group of people from a message board we both post on. I had such a good time hanging out with everyone and finally getting to meet friends that I've known for a long time. Even though I'm thoroughly covered with mosquito bites, nursing this hangover and still feel dirty despite having just taken a shower, all of that was worth it for the company on the trip. I'm sad that the 4 day trip came to such a fast end but time really does fly when you're having fun.

The first day was spent meeting up with everyone and driving up there. We ate at a Chinese restaurant in Oakhurst.

Before we got to the campsite we stopped for some pictures at a scenic spot with the waterfall.

At the campsite we unloaded everything and sat down to rest a bit before starting a fire and getting ready for dinner.

Kris made some awesome pulled pork for dinner.

After dinner we had some shennanigans. I think the pics speak for themselves.

The next day Justyn and I walked over to The Awahnee Hotel for brunch.

When everyone got back to the camp Erik & Don broke out some canned fish. I was super excited to try the stuff but I'll never touch it again.

After some snacking some of us took a bus ride to the bottom of the waterfall.

When we got back to camp a decision needed to be made. Simpler Times or Tecate? Darrin is from Australia so we had him decide. Simpler Times was the winner!

More evening partying and craziness.

The next day some of the group went on a 9 mile hike on the Panoramic Trail. I feel bad for Justyn. He has been limping like crazy since they got back from the hike. (These pics are from Kris)

I stayed back at camp with Mel, Darrin & Rob. The guys got back super fast from the hike and I could tell they were happy to be back after having some well deserved drinks.

We had drinks down by the river....

This pic was taken by Kris.

I'm sure I'm missing a couple days somewhere in this post but oh well. That's how much fun I had on this trip.

Huuuge thanks go out to Kris (for driving especially), Mel & Don for organizing this trip. The weather was awesome, and the scenery was fantastic. You guys rock! Also huge hugs go out to Justyn, Mike, Andy, Darrin, Rob, Erik, Kevin & Nate. I’ll miss those of you who I won’t see until our next trip.

Cooking: Caprese Salad on Toast

2010-06-06T20:43:00.000-07:00

We had a party to go to last night so I was torn between making caprese salad and some Merguez Boulettes (French meatballs) but since the weather was warm, I thought caprese salad would be the perfect thing. In order to have the caprese salad easier to eat, I toasted some baguette slices and rubbed some raw garlic on them. I then topped the toasts with slices of mozzarella cheese, half a cherry tomato & basil. Then I drizzled them with olive oil and twice reduced balsamic vinegar. I hadn't reduced the balsamic vinegar to get it thick enough so I had to pour it back in the pot to let it reduce a couple more minutes before it got syrupy. Before we brought them to the party, I had eaten 3 myself and they were delicious! I'm always amazed at how sometimes simple things can taste so good since I normally love more complicated recipes.

At the Greek Festival

2010-06-06T20:37:00.000-07:00

Today we went to the Greek Festival to satisfy our Greek food craving.

Cooking: Quick Zha Jiang Mien

2010-06-02T18:43:00.000-07:00

I got this recipe from runnyrunny999 on youtube (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nXe1LrOiiT0). I love his videos because they're all so candid and funny. Anyway, I've been craving this dish like crazy but the hard part is finding the right ingrediants. It wasn't the produce, meat or noodles that made me wait this long to make this recipe. It was the two bean pastes. In runny's video, he uses doubanjiang & tenbanjiang both of which I would've had to make a special trip to Marina to get. I found the spicy bean chili paste at Lucky but they didn't have sweet bean paste. Instead, I used plum sauce.

OK, so this isn't exactly authentic but it tastes good. Instead of Chinese egg noodles, I substituted shirataki noodles to make the dish healthier. The texture is a little weird but Justyn and I like that we're eating a product that's better for us than straight carbs. IIRC, it's only 40 calories a pack!

The recipe is pretty quick and easy. Plus, once you have all your prep work done, this meal only takes about 15-20 minutes to cook. I'm digging the flavors of my bastardized Zha Jiang Mien and I'll probably be making this for future weeknight meals.

Cards Blog Challenge: Window Card

2010-06-01T21:30:00.000-07:00

These past couple of weeks have been pretty hectic and busy for me so that's the reason I was unable to post a submission for last week's challenge. I made myself sit down and crank out a card since I missed making something. I never got around to making a window card when Kristina Werner posted her MACM on May 10th (woah.. that was nearly a month ago!). I used this week's Cards Blog Challenge as an opportunity to do so.

To date, I don't think I've made a monochromatic card and thought it'd look pretty good. I like it :) I didn't have any white brads so I used one of Kristina's old tutorials and white embossed on them. Pretty handy trick! I only had to emboss the brads twice to cover up the original color (orange, blue & purple). I am bummed that my white embossing powder isn't exactly white. Doesn't it look more like a cream color? Oh well, I bought some American Crafts embossing powder in white, so as soon as I'm done with my current stash, I'll start using that.

NAC: Congratulations

2010-05-25T21:15:00.001-07:00

I started this card last night but couldn't get the box around the flowers centered. I find that stepping away from a card and coming back to it helps a lot. Tonight it was a lot easier to focus and get it just the way I wanted.

PS - I revisited Lisa Spangler's blog for a tutorial on how to lighten my photos since the lighting set up (non-existant) sucks. I've been playing around in GIMP and her tutorial was super easy to get rid of the darkness in my photos.

Here's a photo so you can compare the two.

Cooking: Chicken Porridge

2010-05-25T19:15:00.000-07:00

Today was a chilly and rainy day so for lunch we had some pho. The weather was still pretty crappy when we got home and since Justyn had some leftover rotisserie chicken from some tacos he made last night, I used the bones, salt, pepper, ginger, garlic, green onion & cilantro to a quick chicken stock. I also had the rice soaking while I prepped the ingrediants for the stock. By the time I had the stock simmering I was supposed to saute the rice prior to putting it in our new rice cooker but I got lazy and impatient. I skimmed the chicken stock and got rid of all the scum before draining it. I added the rice to the rice cooker and submerged it 3/4 of the way full and added another 1/4 of the way full with water. It's a little complicated but the results are worth it and to be honest, I don't really have much of a recipe for this dish anymore. You can pretty much wing it with a few basic tips and it'll turn out great.

1) Soak the rice for at least half an hour.
2) Drain the rice and saute it until they're a little transparent.
3) Take the time out to make a nice aromatic chicken broth.
4) Lots of toppings. I used some chopped and rinsed preserved turnip, cilantro, the tops of the green onions, prepared fried garlic & onion, lime juice & finally some baby bok choi. Sriracha & a little soy sauce on the side doesn't hurt either.

What you end up with a nice hot and flavorful bowl of comfort.

NAC: I'm There For You

2010-05-24T21:21:00.000-07:00

Look ma! No stitching! Heh.. I was inspired by this cute tank top from Old Navy. I'm actually working on another card that has stitching on it but it's far from being done so maybe I'll finish it up and post it tomorrow.

Cards Blog Challenge: Berries

2010-05-20T20:35:00.000-07:00

The theme for this weeks Cards Blog challenge was berries. I knew I wanted to make a strawberry out of felt and add some stitching detail on it, so that part was easy. The semi difficult part was the layout. Originally, I was just going to put a banner under the strawberry but that seemed a little too simple so I took a page out of Kristina Werner's MACM video. I like the juxtaposition of the patterned paper so I incorporated that with stitching of course. The patterned papers I used are from October Afternoon's Farm Fresh line. Another trick I figured out when stitching with felt is to back it with some leftover packaging from embellishments. Just draw and cut out the shape. Then pierce holes for stitching. I adhered the felt to the shape with dry adhesive. This makes stitching close to the edge of the felt a lot easier.

Cooking: Pasta Amatriciana

2010-05-20T18:15:00.000-07:00

I noticed that I haven't made pasta lately so guess what? We're having that for dinner tonight. This recipe is super simple and easy to make. Not too many ingrediants either which is always convenient for a weekday meal.

Haha I just looked over and Justyn and he already polished his bowl full of pasta. "GOOD!" was his response. Sometimes I wonder if he's half caveman.

Pasta Amatriciana

2 tsp olive oil
1 slice ham (1/4") cut lardon style
1 medium onion(s), chopped
1 medium garlic clove(s), minced
14 1/2 oz canned diced tomatoes
1/2 tsp dried oregano
1/2 tsp crushed red pepper flakes, to 1/4 teaspoon
1/2 tsp table salt
1/4 tsp black pepper, freshly ground
1/4 cup(s) water
1/2 pound(s) uncooked whole-wheat pasta, spaghetti variety
1 Tbsp parsley, fresh, chopped

Cook the pasta per directions on the package.

In the meantime, heat oil in pan on medium high heat. Add the ham and cook until slightly browned.

Add onion and cook for a few minutes until softened. Then add the garlic & red pepper flake.

When garlic is fragrant, add tomato & oregano. You might have to add a little water if the sauce reduces too quickly. Simmer the mixture until the pasta is done. Season to taste.

Drain pasta. Add the mixture to the pasta pot and mix in basil.