Genki Tummy

Barcelona, Spain~Sagardi

2012-01-26T11:41:00.028-06:00

My sister called me last night and was worried because she had not heard from me in a couple of weeks and I had not blogged in a while. So here I am continuing with the Spain highlights.
I don't know where all the time went. We did take a mini vacation to San Francisco one weekend, but other than that, I'm not sure where our free time goes. Maybe it's Mike's new 2012 rule of "30 minutes of cleaning" every night. He figured that if we clean a little each night, we wouldn't spend a huge chunk of our weekend cleaning. It's funny that he instituted the rule, yet I'm the one that's been following it...hmmmm....

Here's another bar that we went to for some pinchos. This place was mentioned in Rick Steves' Spain guidebook.

All the pinchos cost the same, and at Sagardi it was about 1.70 Euros a piece.

The pincho on the top left corner is tuna salad topped with some onion strands. The one on the right is a potato pancake on top of bread.

Mike liked this pincho. It's green olives, anchovies, and green peppers. This pincho is so much smaller than the other pinchos that I had a difficult time choosing anything that looked skimpy.

Salmon with grated onion

Seafood salad with shredded hard boiled egg. I picked this one because I wondered what the shredded white ingredient on the top was. I thought it was cheese, but when I found out it was egg, I thought that it was a neat garnish that could be used on other foods.

Barcelona, Spain~Taller de Tapas

2012-01-11T17:00:00.000-06:00

We saw this restaurant when we were bar-hopping for pinchos and decided to try it out for dinner. It was really crowded during lunch time and the aromas coming out of the restaurant smelled delicious.

Another good sign was that there were a lot of stickers on the tour. These stickers became our best guess on whether the restaurant would be good or not. It looked like this restaurant received a bunch of positive ratings.

Clams

Clams in a garlic and wine sauce. Yum!

Bread-It was more like crackers

We ordered this bread to soak up all the wonderful flavors from the clams, shrimp, and sausage juices.

Chorizo in Cider

The chorizo cooked in cider was one of Mike's favorite dishes throughout our whole trip in Spain. Pretty much any dish containing chorizo, sausage, ham, etc was well received by Mike. Mike liked it so much that he tried to replicate it back home. It's a really simply dish-it's pretty much chorizo sausage, cider, onions, and some spices.

Gambas ajillo-Basically this is like shrimp scampi

I ordered this dish by mistake. I had wanted to order shrimp-gambas with a spicy sauce. But then got my Spanish words mixed up and ordered "ajillo"which means garlic. It was tasty, but I've had better shrimp scampi.

Patatas Fritas-French Fries and mayonnaise

Yup, like typical Americans, we ordered Patatas Fritas a few times during our trip. It's deep-fried potato wedges topped with a mayonnaise sauce. I once ordered it by mistake with a bolognese sauce on it.

Taller de Tapas
Placa Sant Josep Oriol 9
Barcelona, Spain

Churros con Chocolate

2012-01-09T14:35:00.000-06:00

Hi All! I've been feeling under the weather for the past couple of weeks, and haven't felt up to blog posting. Then I had a laptop scare and thought a virus ate through my hard drive. :( I'm continuing with the Spain posts...

Chocolate con Churros (Chocolate and Churros)

Look at that thick rich hot chocolate. Spanish hot chocolate tastes almost like warm chocolate pudding with less sugar. There is a lot more starch in this hot chocolate. I don't know how someone could finish a whole cup on their own!

I guess we looked like tourists, so our chocolate and churros came with a packet of sugar. We tasted the hot chocolate and then quickly added the whole packet. If you notice, the churros also do not contain the familiar sprinkle of sugar either. It's more like a fried piece of dough.

This is the traditional way to eat churros and chocolate. You are supposed to dip the churros into the chocolate.

Look at that churro! We saw this churro on the streets in Seville.

Mike wanted to stop and eat more churros. We were given a packet of granulated sugar again. We both agreed that the hot chocolate was sweet enough for our liking, so Mike dumped the sugar packet on to the churros.

I think this was more of a touristy spot. This hot chocolate was similar in texture to the instant hot cocoa we are familiar with in the USA.

Barcelona~Bibao Berria

2012-01-03T16:20:00.000-06:00

This was our first "pinchos" tapas experience of our trip. From what we gather pincho bars serve smaller tapas which are called "pinchos" (Spanish for the word "spike"). When you are finished eating, the servers count the number of toothpicks left on your plate and charge you accordingly.

Sardine on a vegetable sauce. I thought that this was the best flavored pincho that we ordered. I wasn't very adventurous and I chose pinchos that looked familar to me.

Angulas Pincho and a pincho with cheese and quince jam.

Iberico Ham Pincho

Fried items.

Angulas -Baby eels. I thought that they tasted a bit like unflavored fishcake.

We did not select any of the dessert pinchos because this was our first pinchos bar and we were planning on bar-hopping for our lunch that day.

Bibao Berria

Seville, Spain~Eslava

2011-12-27T16:40:00.001-06:00

Restaurant Eslava in Seville was hands down Mike and my favorite restaurant during out trip to Spain. It was so good that we went there twice in one day! We went there on the same day because we found this restaurant on the last day of our trip.

Another Travel Tip-If there are a bunch of Michelin stickers on the wall/door next to the restaurant, there is a good chance that the food is wonderful!

We could only read a few words on the menu, so we relied on other restaurant patrons for help. It was a neat experience, Mike was ordering "Un Chorizo por favor," and we received some glaring looks and were told not to order that and everything else on the menu was WAY better. So, for the first time in our lives we had complete strangers order our food (and the freak out for me was we didn't even know the price of the dishes!)

Solomillo-Pork tenderloin in cream sauce

Spinach casserole with cream sauce

Croquettes

Salmohero-So good. Mike and I are not fans of cold soups (i.e. gazpacho, cream of asparagus soup), but this Spanish version of gazpacho was delicious. It tasted like a creamy cold tomato soup topped with chopped boiled eggs, bacon pieces, and topped with olive oil. I found out from a friend that the creaminess of the soup is actually from ground bread crumbs. This soup is definitely worth it for a remake at home!

Olives and almonds. This was the appetizer they start people off with

Blood Sausage-Meh. Mike ate it. It wasn't bad, just different.

Ortigas (sea anemones). Our new friends also ordered this dish for us. They asked if we liked seafood and I was like, "sure." While I was eating this dish, I was mentally checking off all the seafood I knew (nope, not lobster, crab, shrimp, fish, squid, octopus, clams, oysters, uni....). I was a bit disturbed, but kept eating it because hey most fried things taste good. We went back to our hotel and googled "ortigas" and realized it was sea anemones (it's Nemo's home in "Finding Nemo").

Some kind of sweet salty mushroomy goodness topped with a sunny side up egg. Everyone in the restaurant was ordering this, so as a lemming would do, we ordered it, not knowing what it was. (that's another restaurant tip-when in doubt and lacking the language skills, if a lot of people are ordering a dish and it looks good,point and order).

Razor Clams. Mike thought he was ordering me mushrooms, but apparently he ordered me clams. I was not complaining because I like clams and this was the second time in my life that I had razor clams (the other was in Barcelona a couple days prior).

This was the best sangria I've had in my life. It was probably because it was sweet and tasted like juice.

Sweet short ribs with potatoes. Mike said that the flavor was similar to char siu.

At the end of the day the damage was not too bad. I think that our lunch bill was about 25 euros ($42) and our dinner was about 21 euros ($36). That's including at least 5 tapas for each meal and two alcoholic drinks. Not too shabby, not too shabby.

c/Eslava 5
tel. 954 906 568
13.00 – midnight
closed Sunday evening & Monday

My New Time Waster (but it's so fun!)

2011-12-22T10:40:00.000-06:00

Have any of you heard of Pinterest? It's a really cool site that allows you to "pin" pictures (and links to websites, blogs, etc) onto organized boards. Then in a Facebook-esque way, your friends can see what you pin and you can "re-pin" or "like" these pictures.
One of my co-workers showed me it and I thought that it was kind of neat. Then I started spending hours online looking at all the creative foods and DIY people "pin." If you would like to look at my meagerly pinned boards, click here.

I wanted to use Pinterest as a virtual notebook of innovative items and food items I found online-kind of like an quick pictorial version of "bookmarking" websites that you enjoy.

Only downside is that you cannot "hide" your profile for only you to see, since the philosophy is to browse and share your interests with others.

If you would like an invite to Pinterest, send your email address to me. It's much faster if you are invited to join Pinterest versus requesting an invite on the main site.

Bacon Jam!!!!

2011-12-15T15:55:00.000-06:00

A couple weeks ago I decided that I'd be ambitious and try to make some bacon jam. Bacon jam you ask? Yeah, it's basically a spread consisting of bacon, onion, and spices. I thought that it would make good Christmas gifts for the foodies I know. I decided to only make a small batch before cooking down 3 POUNDS of bacon.

"Good Quality Bacon." I'm not a big bacon eater-unless it is really crispy and a lot of the fat has rendered off, so I had to ask Mike for help on what constitutes "Good Quality Bacon." I settled on Hormel's Black Label Bacon from Sam's Club because Mike said, "That's higher quality than the bacon we usually buy." *I'm not sure if Mike was referring to the turkey bacon that I buy for myself.

I also bought a huge container of real maple syrup from Sam's Club.

Here's a secret...when I want to experiment in the kitchen, I search online for recipes. I scour the Internet (okay for about 5-10 minutes) and then compile the recipes that sound good based on the ingredients and how they match in my mind.

I then compile them, omit ingredients that I:
1) do not like; 2) do not have in the house; 3) am not willing to purchase
In regards to the cooking technique I choose:
1) the quickest and easiest method, unless there is a apparent reason why the extra time is a necessity
2) use the technique that involves equipment and gadgets that I have in the house
If I realize that I do not have enough of an ingredient while I am cooking
1) Omit the ingredients
2) Substitute it with ingredient(s) that I think will work. (i.e. I used some brown sugar once in a lemon bar recipe because I ran out of granulated sugar).

Putting the cooked bacon back into the pot with the caramelized onions and other goodies.

Stirring all the ingredients in a crock pot.

Bacon Jam-My Version (an amalgamation of all the recipes I liked online)
Ingredients
1 pound good quality smoked bacon (cut into 1" pieces)
2 cups of thinly sliced onion
3 cloves of garlic, minced
1/4-1/2 cup dark brown sugar
1 tablespoons Sriracha sauce
1/4 t of chili flakes
1 cup coffee
1/4 cup apple cider vinegar
1/4 cup maple syrup
1/4 t black pepper

Directions
Cook the bacon in batches over medium high heat until the fat is rendered off the bacon and it is just starting to crisp. Set the bacon on the side. Pour out the bacon grease (you can use it for something else).

Keep 1-2 tablespoons of the bacon fat in the pan/pot and then dd the onion and garlic and cook over medium heat until the onions have caramelized.

Return the bacon to the pan/pot and add all the remaining ingredients (sugar, coffee, spices, etc). Bring to a boil and reduce to a simmer.

*For the next step, I decided to transfer the mixture from the pot into a crock pot.
Simmer over low heat for 3-4 hours until you can no longer tell the onion from the bacon and it has a thick, jam-like consistency and deep rich brown color. Occasionally stir the mixture and add water if it looks like it is becoming to dry.

Cool the mixture and then transfer it to a food processor. Chop/blend the mixture until the desired texture that you would like. I like the slightly rustic look of chunks of bacon in my jam, so I did not puree my mixture.

Let cool and place in a glass jars, the refrigerate. Take out of fridge ~1 hr before serving, so jam will be at room temperature. I haven't tested this out, but I'm sure you could heat the jam in the microwave before serving too. Serve with crackers.

Some of the other websites I viewed said to add a splash of vanilla extract to round out the flavor. Mike wanted to add some smokey notes to the jam. I did not want to ruin the jam, so we tested out these extra flavoring in small containers. We're glad to report that the addition of either flavor creates an edible tasty jam. Although when I make the jam again for gifts I do plan on adding the liquid smoke....and I'm still teetering on the addition of vanilla extract.

I brought it to a friend's house for a party and it was well received. That's enough of a seal of approval before I start making it for gifts.

Spain Sights

2011-12-13T11:02:00.000-06:00

I finally got around to posting the first pictures from our trip to SPAIN! Based on the slow posting, you would think that Mike and I were on vacation for weeks, but in reality we visited Barcelona, Madrid, and Seville in a little over one week. We enjoyed our trip and have many experiences to share with you all.

We've been slowly getting back into the groove of things back home (taking care of the puppy, our apartment, dealing with the pile of things to do on my desk at work, going to Christmas parties, etc), and blogging got pushed on the side.

Here are some of the non-food highlights from our trip.

Sagrada Familia in Barcelona

View of Barcelona from Park Guell

Park Guell Architecture

Antoni Gaudi's Casa Mila

Metropol Parasol in Seville

Plaza de Espana in Seville

Traveling...

2011-11-26T16:29:00.002-06:00

I am pre-posting this post. By the time you see it, Mike and will be flying back in the States from our vacation! Yes, I actually had some time between my work travel to travel for pleasure. Stay tuned to see pictures from our exciting travels...

Grand Rapids, MI~Marie Catribs

2011-11-24T23:30:00.002-06:00

I'm glad that I checked out this restaurant while I was traveling. Marie Catrib's is one of those restaurants that Mike would be hesistant to step foot in. Mike tends to shy away from restaurants serving "vegetarian," "gluten-free," and "vegan." But he may have given this restaurant a chance because they also serve hamburgers and other kinds of meats.

Sweet potato and quinoa burger. The "burger" is filled with sweet potato, quinoa, onions, almonds, cumin, and other spices. I am not sure if it was the additional vegannaise and the tomato-ginger chutney that made this sandwich delicious, of it was the creative combination of the ingredients of the swee potato burger. I want to attempt to recreate this burger at home. I've never had a vegetarian burger that contained the sweetness and dense texture of sweet potatoes, with the interesting texture of chopped almonds.

Falafel with homemade hummus and tabouli. I ordered this thinking that I would be able to sample some of the salads that Marie Catrib's offers. I think that the falafel fell inthe shadow fo the sweet potato burger. If I had only ordered the falafel, then I would have thought it was a yummy falafel (although I've had better in Australia).

Marie's Seasoned Potatoes-These are supposed to be famous potatoes, but I thought the flavors of the sweet potato burger and the falafel but these potatoes to shame.

I really enjoyed this place. It's kind of eclectic and had a Berkeley feel to it. It would neat to own a restaurant similar to this hippie-type of place. But then agian, I'd feel like a poser if I owned this kind of restaurant.

Marie Catribs

1001-1003 Lake Drive SE
Grand Rapids, MI 49503
(616) 454-4020

Making Chocolate from Cacao Nibs

2011-11-22T21:51:00.009-06:00

Here is another fail in my kitchen experiments. I'll leave you with some pictures of my attempt to make chocolate from Cacao Nibs.

I tried to make it using the "cheat" way and placed a handful of cacao nibs in a food processor and pulsed it....for over 30 minutes until I slowly started to see the nibs start to liquefy.

Here's the final product. Grainy, liquefied cacao nibs. It had a deep dark chocolate taste, but it was gritty in texture. I think I have to invest in one of those power blenders that Jamba Juice uses and Costco sells to liquefy my cacao nibs. Meh, it was worth the initial experiment, but I don't know if I really want to attempt to make chocolate this way again.

Homemade Caramels

2011-11-18T09:13:00.002-06:00

If any of my co-workers read my blog, they are now realizing just how slowly I post on this blog. Okay, I do not take a year to post, but it sure does feel like it.

I made an assortment of caramels prior to the 2010 Christmas holidays, but look it's perfect timing as a holiday gift idea.

After Mike and I returned home from Paris in late November 2010, I was on a "salted caramel" kick. I loved Laduree's salted caramel macaron and had it on my mind. I bought fleur de sel (French salt flakes) and grey salt from France just to experiment with it at home.

Look at the pretty caramel wrappers. I purchased food grade candy wrappers from Amazon.com. My mantra-wrappers and packaging make everything look pretty and more presentable.

I heated the sugar and water to caramelize it. I heated the solution to 260F because I was afraid they would become to hard and glassy in texture. I should have actually cooked it to 310 F for a harder texture.

Poured the mixture into a pan and let it solidify.

I also attempted to make chocolate caramels. The Flavor was similar to See's Candies Chocolate lollypops.

Most of the caramels that I made were a bit on the soft side. If the caramels were refrigerated, they were the perfect texture after taking them out and letting them sit at room temperature for a few minutes.

Hmmm....after blogging about this, I may make caramels again this year. All though if I have time this year, I have my heart set on experimenting on some other creative concoctions.

"Flour: A Baker's Collection of Spectacular Recipes"

2011-11-16T10:11:00.000-06:00

I really enjoyed reading and using Joanne Chang's "Flour: A Baker's Collection of Spectacular Recipes." The book was filled with beautiful pictures, easy to follow recipes, and background stories about the tried and true recipes.
I borrowed this book from the library and liked the recipes I tried. I may purchase a signed copy from "Flour" bakery when I'm back in Boston next year. I liked how all the recipes listed ingredients amount by volume and metric mass units!
Baking is just as much as science as it is an art, and sometimes weighing the ingredients versus volumetrically measuring the ingredients is the difference between a bad versus good recipe or a good versus great recipe.

Oatmeal Raisin Cookies (I made oatmeal cranberry cookies).

Lime Cornmeal Cookies-These cookies were average. I thought they were a bit pasty and dry in texture.

Snickerdoodles. Yum! These were light and crunchy (I overbaked them by mistake).

Puffy cookies right out of the oven

A lot of people on the mainland enjoy soft and chewy cookies. I'm familiar with crunchy cookie recipes, but have been working on perfecting a soft/chewy cookie. I think the secret is to slightly under-bake the cookies.

This is a picture of the underbaked cookies after sitting on the pan for 10 minutes after pulling the pan out of the oven. I think my favorite cookie recipe that I tried was the chocolate chunk cookies. It may even become my "go to" recipe instead of the traditional Toll house cookie recipe. I have to work on tweaking the recipe a little bit. I'd like the finished cookie to have a little more shape instead of becoming a thin pancake.

Cucumber Kimchee

2011-11-14T10:42:00.000-06:00

Every so often, Mike and I receive care packages from back home containing random food stuffs from Hawaii. My mom seems to find these random new products that she's tried and then sends us some to try. Last year, she sent this huge bottle of kim chee sauce to us and I haven't been able to make a dent in the bottle.

The katana on the bottle reads "Kim Chee" so I am not sure what company produces this base, but I think my mom picked it up from Marukai or Don Quixote back home.

I bought some Persian cucumbers and sliced them up for some quick cucumber kim chee. I haven't been able to find Japanese cucumbers in the Texas markets, but I have found these Persian cucumbers at Asian markets and they are similar to the Japanese cucumbers with small seeds.

I do not like a lot of flavor on my kimchee, so I added only a little bit of sauce to the sliced cucumbers. I added more after I snapped this picture. I then left the container in the refrigerator for a couple of hours and ate it with my dinner.

I think that this sauce produces pretty good kim chee. This is my extent of kim chee making. (Yes, I am part Korean and do not know the first thing about making kim chee). Mike is not a big fan of the flavor and said that there's a strong fishy taste to it. I think it tastes pretty good for a "ready to use" (cheat) sauce and would purchase it for that quick Korean food fix.

In-N-Out

2011-11-10T10:05:00.002-06:00

Back in May of this year, In-N-Out opened in Texas. Mike and I finally checked out one of the restaurants in Allen, TX. We had been meaning to check out In-N-Out for a while, but every time we happend to drive past the In-N-Out the parking lot looked so crowded that we decided to put off our visit.
It's difficult to compare burgers from restaurants because you are relying on your memory of the burger. The last time I ate a burger from In-N-Out was in June 2011 when I was in Las Vegas. I did not eat a "fresh" burger because someone had picked it up and I ate it about 20 minutes after it was made.

Man In-N-Out is one of the most efficient fast food places I have ever been to. They quickly churn out order after order and the line keeps moving. The only way that they could improve their efficiency would be to install TV monitors with order numbers instead of having a worker shout out order numbers on the speaker. I saw this at a Rosa's Cafe the other night and I think they might have the slight edge in speed over In-N-Out.

Mike ordered the "Animal Style" burger-includes extra sauce and toppings. I just had a plain cheeseburger (I rather eat a hamburger sans cheese, but I was saving us seats and Mike ordered me one with cheese). We were hungry, and those burgers tasted good. The fries were okay (I prefer twice-fried fries), but I overheard a kid shout, "These are the best fries," so everyone has their own preference on fry type.

Neapolatin Shake

Meh. Mike and I were not a fan of the fan of the shakes. Sorry Jay, I know that you really like them. I think so far, our favorite fast food shakes are from Chick-fil-A.

So here's our verdict on In-N-Out, for the price of a burger (<$2) it's a great deal. The burgers are tasty and have a fresh taste to them, if given a choice between McDonald's, Burger King, Wendy's, Jack in the Box, and In-N-Out, I'd choose In-N-Out.
If I throw "Five Guys Burgers and Fries" into the mix, I might choose Five Guys. Five Guys burgers set you back about $6 each (that's like 3-4 In-N-Out burgers), but I think I'd give Five Guys my vote because I like that you can add a lot more toppings to your burger (sauteed mushrooms, grilled onions, etc) AND I think the fries are better at Five Guys.
Mike says that it would be a toss-up between the restaurants because price becomes a factor. If he wanted a good cheap burger, he'd go to In-N-Out. If price wasn't factored in to the decision, he'd choose Five Guys for the win on flavor.

Stacy's Gingerbread Pita

2011-11-08T11:48:00.002-06:00

I've been pretty good at not disclosing where I work, but a lot of you probably know where I work and the products I work on. I work on the Stacy's Pita Chip brand. I love my job and love keeping up with food trends.

We just launched a new product, "Stacy's Simply Gingerbread" and it's a really tasty product. I'm not saying this just because I work for the company (do not worry, I am not receiving any perks by posting about this product). I did not help with the formulation of this product, but I think the flavor profile is delicious! Just imagine the Stacy's cinnamon and sugar pita with a spicy (ginger, cloves, etc) bold taste. It's so good! I think I like it more than the Cinnamon and Sugar pita chips, but that's debatable depending on my mood.
Okay, don't you all worry, I will rarely post about my job and new products that are launched. I just think that this flavor is wonderful and would post about it if I were just an unassuming customer.

The materials/opinions posted on this blog are my own and do not represent those of PepsiCo or any of its subsidiaries or divisions. Nor do they constitute any official communication of those companies.

To My Wonderful Husband

2011-11-06T15:29:00.000-06:00

Trees outside of my hotel

Today marks the 7th continuous day that I've been gone for work travel. Mike's been taking care of the house and taking care of our little Butters. Our pup was sick (Mike thinks it is because Butters is eating bird poop on our patio) and Mike had to wake up at 3:30am one night to take care of him (it was during the work week). Then Mike had to deal with Butters jumping up on the sofa top (not on the seats, but the top of the sofa backrest) because he has so much energy.

The patio with bird poop

I would like to share another story about why Mike is awesome. (Mike, if you're reading this back in Texas, yes I used your name and awesome in the same sentence. It's probably the lack of sleep and long hours taking a toll on me. :P).
Last month, I was on yet another trip for work and Mike decided to clean the apartment. I walked into our closet in the morning and saw that he had organized the closet. I let out a squeal of excitement because it looked like my pants wardrobe had expanded. Just to let you know, I have always had that many pairs of work pants; they just were not hung neatly and some were probably on hidden on the ground.
I have my select few pants I wear often because a)they are easily accessible; b)they are the perfect length for the shoes I want to wear. Now my choice of pants has expanded by a two-fold!

My wonderful husband cleaned and organized my clothes while I was gone! He also organized both bathroom drawers and other cabinets around our apartment!
Yay for awesome husbands!

Nutrition Educator Part 2~Chocolate Silk Pie with Tofu

2011-11-02T10:17:00.000-05:00

The other week I was teaching a lesson on lean protein and was discussing meat alternatives that provide protein. We started to discuss different ways to mask the flavor of soy and tofu if you are a tofu newbie. I remembered this awesome chocolate pie that Aaron made in grad school and told the class about it.

Here's a Chocolate Silk Pie recipe. If someone told me that you could mask the soy flavor of tofu in pie, I would not believe it either, but this pie is delicious! I think it's the chocolate and the coffee that masks the soy flavors.
Ingredients
Crust
1 prepared pie crust (I wanted it to be extra chocolaty so I bought an Oreo crust)

Filling
1 cup chocolate chips, melted
12 ounces silken tofu, drained
1 teaspoon vanilla

The tofu has to be a "Silken" or soft tofu. I haven't tried making the pie with firm tofu, but I'd imagine that a firm tofu may result in a gritty texture or you will end up spending more time blending the tofu.

I used Girardhelli's 60% cocoa chips because I like the rich flavor of dark chocolate. Plus I think it tastes better than Nestle morsels, but is cheaper than a Scharffen Berger or Valrhona chocolate chips. I use Girardhelli chocolate chips in most of my baking because it's a happy medium between quality and price.

Tofu in the blender

Directions
Melt chocolate chips over the lowest heat. Meanwhile in a food processor or blender, blend tofu and all the other ingredients until very smooth. Add melted chocolate and blend again until smooth. Pour into prepared crust. Cover and refrigerate.

*Disclaimer-I am not saying that this is a "healthy" dish. It is healthier than an original chocolate pie recipe containing egg yolks and heavy cream. It still has to be eaten in moderation.

During the class, we discussed how to read "Nutrition Facts" labels, how to calculate Calories from different macronutrients and compared the Nutrition Facts between the pie containing tofu and a chocolate pie.

Nutrition Educator

2011-10-31T12:56:00.001-05:00

Let's a delve into my personal life for a little bit. I often debate on how much information to share on this blog. I would like it to be a warm and candid blog, but I wouldn't want someone knocking on my front door. But then again, half of the people reading this blog either have met me, know my real name and phone number, or I call mom or dad.
Well, today I will *gasp* be letting you through the outer most gates of my "Circle of Trust," and telling you about one of my endeavors. The other month, I started volunteering with the North Texas Food Bank as a Nutrition Educator. I partner up with a chef and he teaches the healthy cooking portion of the lesson.
I enjoy teaching. I stress out about lesson planning and have an initial fear of public speaking (that can be seen by the sweat accumulating on my shirt), but I do get excited teaching Nutrition and Food Science concepts. If I were a trust fund baby or happened to win the lottery (and basically did not have to work for the rest of my life), I would probably use my time volunteering to teach Nutrition, Healthy and Budget Cooking, or promote physical activity through free exercise classes.

Just a brief recap of my first class; the participants were super excited to learn about Nutrition and healthy cooking. I jotted down some of the questions that they wanted answered and since I'll be emailing and explaining some of the answers in class, I figured I'd post the questions and answers on this blog.
Oh my goodness, you guys are super duper lucky. I'm going to let you take another step into my "circle" and tell you more about myself and my education background. Just to let you know that I am quasi-legit to teach the course (no, I needed a bit more credentials than having a blog about food). I have a BS, MS, and PhD in fields related to Food Science and/or Nutrition, and have certificates in Culinary Arts and Patisserie from Kapiolani Community College. No I am not a dietitian or a Nutrition Counselor (I do not have those credentials), but I do enjoy keeping up-to-date on the subject matter and believe that people should live healthy lifestyles.
So, stay tuned for more "legit" blog posts in the future...

Tervis Tumbler and Raspberry Spritzer

2011-10-28T17:45:00.003-05:00

If anyone has every seen my desk at work or seen my lounge around at home, I love water. I carry a cup/mug/water bottle pretty much every where I go.

Thank you to Foodbuzz's Tastemaker Maker and Tervis for sending me this tumbler! I love the fact that the tumbler is double insulated so there is no watermark left at my desk.

Back in the summer I bought these beautiful fresh raspberries but did not have a chance to use them quickly, so I froze them. I wanted to make a pretty drink to celebrate the arrival of my new Tervis cup, so decided to create my version of "Flour Bakery's" raspberry soda.

Here's my current favorite drink: Raspberry Spritzer

Raspberry Syrup
1 c. granulated sugar
1/2 c.Water
~1 pint of Raspberries

This is a picture of the raspberry and syrup mixture prior to blending

Make a simple syrup (2 parts of sugar to 1 part of water). Measure and pour the sugar and water in a pan and heat on medium to high heat. Stir to dissolve the sugar. When the solution starts to boil, reduce your heat to medium heat and stir it until some of the water starts to evaporate and the syrup starts to thicken. Turn off the heat and add the washed raspberries.
Mix and gently mash the raspberries in the hot syrup. Cool to room temperature. If you have an immersion blender, blend the mixture together when the syrup and then strain

You have just made the raspberry syrup. Pour some of the syrup into a cup (maybe a Tervis tumbler???) and then pour some club soda or sparkling water into the cup and gently stir.

I freeze the syrup so that I can enjoy raspberry spritzer whenever I feel like it. Yummy!

Healthier Mac and Cheese???

2011-10-26T16:14:00.001-05:00

I'm so grateful to have a husband like Mike. Even though work has been taking a toll on him, he's been picking up all the housework slack. For the past couple of weeks, I have been spending countless hours at the office to gear up for some work travel next week. I've been a bad wife and haven't cleaned the house, gone grocery shopping, washed the clothes, or cooked a decent dinner in a long time.

Lucky for me, I married a guy who can cook food that is actually edible (that's an understatement because he cooks tasty food). A couple of weeks ago I bought a butternut squash from the market with grandiose plans to make a lowfat mac and cheese that I saw in a Food magazine. I didn't write down the recipe, all I knew was that I was going to substitute some of the cream and cheese with butternut squash.
Well, one night well I was at work pretty late, and Mike called me and told me that he was going to execute the mac and cheese dish for me.
I came home and this is what I saw:

I was pleasantly surprised with Mike's dish. I'm not sure what was in it besides the roasted butternut squash, mozzarella cheese, beef bouillon, and elbow macaroni. But the dish had potential. Plus to Mike's credit, he only used ingredients that were available in our kitchen.

Mike and I were on the same page when we both critiqued the recipe and decided that for the next attempt, we will:
1)Incorporate sharp cheddar (we didn't have it in the fridge). The stronger cheese flavor will come out and using sharp cheddar will reduce the total amount of cheese that we will add
2)Use our immersion blender and blend the butternut squash/cheese mixtures to a puree, so that there will not be chunks of squash dispersed throughout the macaroni.

Dallas Restaurants~Bread Winners

2011-10-24T21:35:00.000-05:00

When you ask people for recommendations for a good brunch restaurant, "Bread Winners" and the "Original Pancake House" are the first two places recommended in the Plano and Frisco area. I really want to like Bread Winners Cafe; but I've been there twice and am not sure what the hype is all about. I think I'm going to have to chalk it up to the chance that I have just strike out with my menu choices.

Corned Beef Reuben Sandwich

Breakfast Tacos-Flour Tortillas with chorizo, eggs, peppers, onions, and cheese.

Texas Beef Brisket Hash Benedict served on an english muffin with Tabasco hollandaise sauce

Fresh Strawberry and Cream Waffle. The last time I ate at Bread Winners, I had ordered the Fresh Sampler Salad and was disappointed in the lack of flavor of the dish. A lot of people were eating the waffles and french toast, so I thought that I picked a winner. Nope, even though the waffle looks good int he picture, it was a soggy waffle. It's sad to say this, but I as well as others who tasted the waffle felt that frozen Eggo waffles taste better.

Southern Pulled Pork Benedict with frizzled onions, buttermilk biscuit, and Tabasco hollandaise sauce. This dish was flavorful and probably the best dish that was ordered amongst my friends. Maybe I did not get the memo that Bread Winners is known for their benedicts.

I am guessing this was the flank steak benedict with sliced tomatoes on Tuscan toast, served with a demi glace drizzle

BW's Benedict-Smoked Ham on an English Muffin

Bread Winners Cafe and Bakery
4021 Preston Road
Plano, TX 75093
972-312-9300

Two Rangers

2011-10-23T13:49:00.001-05:00

If you have been following my blog, you know that Mike and I have a dog named "Ranger"/"~~Morkie"/~~"Butters." We keep trying to call him "Butters" now, but by habit we keep reverting to "Ranger" (especially when we yell his name to scold him).

This past weekend we house/dog/cat sat for our friends. They live in a "castle" (the house just feels like a castle because it's more than 3 times bigger than our apartment) in a city north of us that we have contemplated living in. Funny story about this couple, my friend's husband's name is Mike, both our Mike's have the same occupation, and our dogs have the same name. Here's a picture of the two Rangers. We started calling them "Little Ranger" and "Big Ranger." It's kind of confusing for Big Ranger because he's so smart and listens to all our commands, even if we are speaking to Little Ranger.

Big Ranger is smiling!

Big Ranger is such a sweet and calm dog. He could easily squash our Little Ranger, but instead just tolerates our little guy. Little Ranger is actually a punk and harasses Big Ranger and the cat (who is bigger than Little Ranger). Mike and I are not sure if it is typical of the Yorkie breed or if we are bad parents.

The two Rangers at the Dog Park. They are on opposite sides of the fence because Little Ranger is in the small dog area (less than 20lb) and Big Ranger is in the big dog park. A dog owner at I met at the park told me it was unusual to see owners with a yorkie and a huge husky-type dog. It made more sense to him when I told him that we were dog sitting.

Since this post involved multiple Rangers, on a side note-Go Texas Rangers!

Vietnamese Food Run

2011-10-21T06:51:00.002-05:00

Mike has cravings for different kinds of food. Last week he wanted to eat at the All-you-can-eat sushi place. For the past couple of weeks he's been wanting to eat good Vietnamese food. He has also hinted that he wants to eat shepard's pie (I guess that means I'm in the kitchen this week). So last Sunday we drove to Garland, TX with a couple of friends to a eat authentic Vietnamese food.

Look at all the Vietnamese desserts!

Banh Xeo-Crispy pancake filled with vegetables, pork, and shrimp. You break off a piece of this pancake, wrap it in lettuce and add fresh herbs, and then dip it in a clear sauce (Nuoc Cham).

This is what my friend really enjoys eating

Vietnamese steamed sticky rice flour dessert coated with coconut and sesame seeds. It had a similar texture to mochi.

Summer Rolls-The filling was different from the typical shrimp and vermicelli noodles. It contains lup cheong, egg, and pickled vegetables.

Spring Rolls

Meat Balls. There were three on the stick, but by the time I took a picture, there was only one left.

Banh Mi Sandwich with roast pork.

We then traveled to Quoc Bao bakery for some banh mi sandwiches. It's a good thing that my friend spoke Vietnamese. She ordered for us and explained that I wanted my vegetables on the side so that my sandwich would not be soggy for my lunch the next day.

Quoc Bao received rave reviews on Yelp and a Vietnamese co-worker of mine recommended it (so it must be good, right?) to another friend, who told me to go check it out.

Mike and I bought some extra loaves of bread (3 for $1). The bread was so light and fluffy!

Roast pork sandwich

Char siu-type pork sandwich

My squirreling habits have rubbed off on Mike and he purchased a couple more sandwiches so that he would have lunch and snacks later on in the week.

Marzetti Simply Dressed Dressing

2011-10-18T15:42:00.000-05:00

Thank you to the Foodbuzz Tastemaker program for partnering with Marzetti Simply Dressed. I was provided a coupon for a free bottle of Marzetti Simply Dressed Dressing. There were so many different flavors to choose (Balsamic, Blue Cheese, Caesar, Champagne, Ginger Sesame, Greek Feta, Ranch, Pomegranate, and Strawberry Poppy)and I debated between the Pomegranate and the Caesar dressings, but settled on the Pomegranate because there was less fat in it and it was a pretty pink color. If my local grocery had the Strawberry Poppy dressing stocked, I probably would have purchased that.

I bet Mike thinks that I am on strike from cooking. I think my cooking track record is one meal per week. Thank goodness that salads count as "dinner." Here's my awesome super easy version of a quick salad dinner. I was traveling this past week from Sunday to Thursday, and lucky for Mike, I "cooked" on Thursday night and had dinner waiting for him when he arrived back home from Ultimate frisbee.

Goat Cheese -Crumbled

Campari Tomatoes-These tomatoes were so beautiful and flavorful! I thought the purchasing the goat cheese was a splurge. These tomatoes were yummy.

Mixed Greens (I was going to purchase the already cut and washed mixed greens, but when I saw that the 16 oz container of the mixed greens was the same price as the 24oz container of gourmet lettuce, I prepared and washed the greens myself)

D'anjou Pears-Thinly sliced
Slivered Almonds
Simply Dressed Pomegrante Salad Dressing

Voila, dinner prepared in less than 10 minutes! The dressing was yummy and added a sweet and slightly tart flavor to my salad. In the future, I think I will use the dressing with heartier greens with more crunch.

Simply Potatoes-Shredded Fresh Potatoes-Potato Pizza

2011-10-15T13:09:00.006-05:00

Simply Potatoes now has a new fresh product of fresh shredded potatoes. As part of the Foodbuzz Tastemaker Program, I received coupons to sample "Simply Potatoes" shredded hash browns.
I wanted to attempt a dessert option using shredded potatoes. I racked my brain thinking of desserts that incorporate vegetables. I was thinking along the lines of carrot cake (shredded carrots), chocolate sauerkraut cake (unlikely vegetable in a cake), or a dessert containing cassava (starchy tuber).

Mike stared at me with dubious eyes and then started cracking up. He thought I was joking with all my suggestions. Let me tell you, I was serious. Mike then suggested a potato hash pizza. That sounded pretty good.

I started imagining a large potato hash crust topped with a sweeter almost ketchup-like sauce, topped with cheese and eggs. The picture above is my vision of a "potato pizza."

Mike was thinking more along the lines of a bacon ranch potato hash pizza. Just imagine a pizza with a baked potato flavor profile. I think Mike's food creations are a bit more mainstream then mine, so we started by attempting his version of the pizza.

Bacon Ranch Potato Pizza
1.5 T of vegetable oil
1.5 cups of Simply Potatoes Shredded Potatoes
1.5 cups of cheese (we used a mixture of sharp cheddar and mozzarella)
1/4 cup bacon bits (we used the real stuff!)
1/8 c Ranch Dressing
Chopped chives for color and garnish

1. Heat a non-stick pan to medium-high heat. Add 1 tablespoon of cooking oil.
2. Place 1.5 cups of shredded potatoes in the pan. Let cook for 5-6 minutes.
3. Flip the "crust" (potato pancake) over and fry for another 5 min.
4. Place pancake on a baking sheet.
5. Cover with cheese and topping of your choice.
6. Place in the oven on the broil setting for ~5 minutes until the cheese is melted.
7. Cut up into slice and serve like pizza.

Here's the finished product. Our Bacon Ranch Potato Pizza!

Slice of our "Breakfast Pizza"

We then also got more creative and then added some egg as a binder for the potatoes and made the "breakfast pizza."
Our recipe was a creative way to make a gluten-free pizza. We were not trying to make a gluten-free pizza, but as I was lifting up a slice of the pie, I thought, "This is a semi-healthy (I say semi-healthy because we added all that cheese and bacon), quick alternative to pizza.

A healthy option of our pizza would be to use low-fat cheese and top the potato pizza with colorful veggies.

Texas Restaurants~Mr.Wok

2011-10-13T09:59:00.000-05:00

I've been slowly trying to make my way through D Magazine's Top 100 restaurants. Mr.Wok, an unassuming restaurant in an old Pizza Hut building was on that list. A few months ago, the girls from the Book Club I participate in decided to meet up for dinner. We were reading "The Fortune Cookie Chronicles" by Jennifer 8. Lee, which focuses on all things related to Chinese restaurants. We thought it was fitting that we meet at a Chinese restaurant to discuss this book. Lucky for Mike, spouses were invited.

Fried Green Beans

Kong's Peking Duck. The duck was extremely lean and the skin was really crispy. Everyone who was a duck eater enjoyed this dish.

After the duck with sliced, we had the option of either having the duck bones sauteed or made into a soup course. We chose the sauteed bones.

Beggar's Chicken. This is a whole chicken stuffed with sticky rice and meat. It is then baked in a bread and roasted for over 20 hours. The server let me pound the bread crust to reveal the chicken. I'm not going to lie, it was pretty darn cool!

The chicken was extremely moist and was probably the most tender chicken I have ever consumed!

We also the Double Wok-Fried Egg noodles topped with a stir-fry of chicken, beef, shrimp, and vegetables.

Mike and I decided to check this place out one Saturday and then a couple of weeks later the book club girls decided have our monthly meeting there.

We ordered two lunch specials, the orange chicken and the kung pao chicken.

Both dishes were flavorful and we would eat here again. The downside is that Mr.Wok is a decent drive away from where we live, so we will not be frequenting this restaurant as often other Chinese restaurants.

Mr. Wok
2600 14th Street
Plano, TX 75074-6529
(972) 881-1888

Grand Rapids, MI~Grand Traverse Pie Company

2011-10-11T09:49:00.013-05:00

This week I'm back in Grand Rapids, Michigan for some work travel. Here's one of my favorite places to eat in the city, the Grand Traverse Pie Company.

The Grand Traverse Pie company is known for their homemade pies. (well, with pie in the restaurant's name, one would think they better have some decent pies). There's over 15 different pie choices each day. If I end up traveling to Michigan more often, I might do a post reviewing all the different flavors. :P

Gourmet Chicken Salad- Chicken salad mixed with roasted pecans and Michigan dried cherries. Cherry Chicken Salad-romaine and spring salad, garlic chicken breast, tomatoes, cucumbers, Parmesan cheese, dried cherries, and croutons. The sandwiches, soups, and salads are pretty tasty too!

Pie is not one of my favorite desserts, but I really enjoyed this mountain berry pie. Actually, I really enjoy any pie with that crispy butter crumble topping. The Lakeshore berry pie consists of strawberries, raspberries, blackberries, and apples. I also enjoy their ABC Crumb Pie with apples, bluberries, and cherries.

Grand Traverse Pie Company

Multiple Locations in Michigan

Knowing Car Brands and Models

2011-10-10T16:46:00.000-05:00

Sometimes Mike and I play a game while we are driving called, "Name that car brand." It's pretty self-explanatory; we name the brand of car that we see driving by. Surprisingly, I am much better at this game than Mike. Maybe it's because my dad used to work at car dealerships when I was growing up.
I rent cars when I am on work travel and I sometimes remember to ask what kind of car is reserved for me (sometimes they upgrade you for free) and I ask for the smaller cars because I'm vertically challenged. Well, during this current trip, the clerk was like, "sure, sure, you have a small car. It's a Ford Escape." *I didn't know what a Ford Escape was*
I replied, "Great, last time I was given some kind of Toyota Jeep/Truck hybrid and had to come back and exchange my keys."
I go outside and see an SUV! Great....It was 12:40am and I was too tired to walk back and exchange my rental, so I kept that "small" boat. I will now study more car makes and models.

Mock Nothing Bundt Cake Lemon Cakes

2011-10-09T14:12:00.000-05:00

My version of a lemon bundt cake

A few years ago, my sister introduced me to Nothing Bundt Cakes sells moist flavored bundt cakes with yummy cream cheese frosting. I am not a big cake eater, but I really enjoyed these cakes. I decided to try to make them myself.

Nothing Bundt Cake-Lemon Bundt Cake

So, the first thing I did was search the Internet for copycat recipes. I found this recipe and modified it to make a lemon cake. I used a box of instant lemon cake mix, sour cream, and sour cream for a moist base. I also omitted the chocolate chips.

My little lemon bundt cakes.

I just bought a spray can of Wilton's Bake Easy spray, so hopefully next time Mike will not have to clean really dirty pans. Mike doesn't seem to mind washing some of my baking dishes because sometimes likes to sample the batter and the misshapen and deformed treats.

I also made some cupcakes

I tried to dress them up with cream cheese frosting and a sprinkle top.

As you can see there is much room for improvement on the appearance of the cakes. The cakes turned out moist and delicious, so I think I've got the basic cake recipe down. My next step it make a firmer cream cheese frosting and pipe out a thicker frosting. I think the last step is to become focused on "pretty-fying" my creations. I think I do not have the patience to make things pretty and focus on the taste and flavor of food.

Dallas Restaurants~Bolla

2011-10-07T09:49:00.002-05:00

I'd like to start this post of with a disclaimer. Mike and I do not extravagantly eat out a lot. We may eat out more than the average couple, but we usually eat dinner at home more times a week than we eat at a restaurant.
Just to make myself feel better and justify our eating out; we bring lunch from home almost every day. This is partially to eat healthy and to save money.

A couple of weeks ago we went on a real "date" and got all dolled up to go to Bolla at the Stoneleigh hotel in the heart of Dallas. I had bought a Travelzoo deal, and had to use the coupon before mid-October. The meal started off with two glasses of wine.

Seared Sea Scallop with Smoked Cheddar Grits, Spinach, and Red Eye Gravy. This appetizer was recommended by our server and it was a great start to the rest of our meal!

Intermezzo-Cucumber sorbet with tomato. I thought that this was a refreshing palate cleanser.

Baked Seabass with parsnip puree, brussels sprouts, and citrus salsa

I wanted to order the seabass, but was skeptical about eating the parsnip puree and brussel sprouts. Our server ensured that the brussels sprouts were not bitter and that only the delicate leaves of the brussels would be served. Our server was right, and I actually enjoyed the brussels sprouts.

Prime Ribeye with whisky goat cheese potatoes, hen of the woods mushrooms, served with a Zinfandel Redux.

Mike ordered the prime rib and was a little underwhelmed with the dish. The meat was a bit chewy, but the flavor was good. I really enjoyed the cheese potatoes (see the picture below).

Look at the presentation of those potatoes. It was served with an extremely crispy pieces of bacon.

Patron Cafe Bread Pudding. The bread pudding was heavier than I would have liked, but we were stuffed from consuming the rest of our courses, that it did not matter.

Bolla

The Stoneleigh Hotel & Spa

2927 Maple Avenue
Dallas, Texas 75201
800-921-8498

Cake Pop Disasters

2011-10-04T16:59:00.002-05:00

Cake pops. Cake balls. If you haven't heard about cake pops or cake balls in the past couple of years, you must be living under a rock. It's one of the biggest trends in the foodie world that began by Bakerella. It's basically cake mixed with frosting, shaped into balls and coated with candy melts or chocolate.
The popularity of her cake pops skyrocketed...cake pops are on the cover page of cooking magazines, Starbucks started selling them, and I even saw Chef Duff cakepops at Sam's Club!

I thought to myself, "Self, I want to attempt to make these cute dainty little cake pops and balls." Boy was I wrong. Here's one of my initial attempts making cake balls. See all the cracked pieces with the cake showing. This is a prime example of what NOT to do.

No one posts about their epic fails making cake balls/pops. All you see are those beautiful smooth finished products.

They resemble balls, but have an inconsistent surface. I figured out that if you squish a bunch together in paper liners, they look slightly more presentable.

I then upgraded and bought this Wilton Chocolate Pro melter to keep my candy coating warm while dipping the cake pops. I'm just putting this out to all of you (two people) reading this blog. The candy melts are too thick in this picture. If you stick a cake pop in candy melts with the consistency seen above, your cake pop will probably stick straight up in that mass. You want the candy melts to be thin and have a low viscosity. If found this out the hard way. TIP-If it's too viscous, add some sort of fat (Crisco, butter, vegetable oil) to thin it out.

TIP-I also dipped each lollipop stick in the candy melt first and then stuck it in the refrigerated cake balls. After this step, I place the pan in the freezer for 15 minutes to harden the pops to make them more manageable.

Again, I tried to dip the cake pops and made ugly pops. I was running late, so I left them out to harden. When I got home, I noticed that I bunch of the cake pops were top heavy and fell through the stick. Note to self-make smaller balls of cake.

TIP-You need something to cool the cake pops on. I imagine styrofoam would work wonders as a base board for the pops. I bought this cake stand to hold my cake pops. Instead of using it as a decorative piece, I just reuse it every time I attempt to make cakepops.

Again, another TIP cute packaging like plastic bags and pink bows can mask the rough surface.

For my third attempt I added some vegetable oil to the candy melts and made smaller cake balls. Mike laughed when I told him my plan of action. He remembered my shock when I returned home to see the top heavy pops.

Whoo-hoo success! Look at that smooth surface! Watch out world! I may soon start making character pops or venture off adding decorations to these pops.

Finished Product. This is my most successful attempt to date!

Morkie Stories

2011-10-02T21:42:00.002-05:00

We have now had Morkie for almost two months. He's doing good, but we don't think he's the smartest dog out there. I guess having a dog lowers our expectation for our potential future children. Mike and I were of the mindset that if we spend a lot of time with our children, we can raise kids who are above average in the smarts department. Morkie is proving us wrong.

Morkie and his modified Elizabethan collar that Mike modified with duct tape. The next size was too big.

Morkie is still a puppy and maybe we just have high expectations of him. But the quickest lesson he ever learned was make sure you do not stray too far from your owners. The other day we were the only ones at a small dog park and Morkie wandered off to another area. Mike and I "hid" behind a tree (I am using quotation marks, because any human being would be able to see us behind that tree) to see if Morkie coudl find us. He searched around for a bit and we believed that he had a sense of panic because he was all alone. He now watches to make sure that he is always by Mike and my side.

Enjoying the car ride to the park.

Here's a couple of other stories you may enjoy. I am trying to perfect the smooth surface of cake balls and cake pops. I was putting them in the fridge to chill, and one of the cake balls fell on the floor. Morkie quickly bit it and I screamed, Mike woke up from his nap and we chased the dog around got him to release it from his mouth.

I was walking Morkie to the car and he got really excited and ran infront of me. Instead of stepping on his foot like Mike sometimes does, I tried to avoid him, and landed flat on my face. I braced myself on my left hand (my palm is all scratched up), and I have some scratches on my right thigh where some dog treat had been in my pocket. I yelped, Mike came running to my side and Morkie went to him, not even realizing that I had fallen. Great....

Morkie in water. He does not like being in water, but Mike is trying to get him to be a water dog.

And the funniest story. Mike was in the kitchen cutting some tofu, with Morkie next to him on a leash. Mike said, "Lauren I gotta take this dog out, he made a really stink fart (Morkie is a stink silent farter)." This was followed by Mike's numerous comments, of "I gotta take him out NOW," "Eww, it's really stink here, this is so gross," "Come here you gotta smell this." So I go in the kitchen, smell the stench and start washing the cutting board and knife while he takes Morkie out. While I'm cleaning up, I smell the tofu container and it smells like a cross between vomit and diarrhea.
Mike comes back into the apartment and says,"Morkie peed but did not poop." I tell Mike, smell the tofu container, I think it was the tofu. Then he goes to the fridge and opens up the container with the cut tofu and smells it. We quickly throw it out and apologize to our dog.

Lastly, we are considering renaming our dog "Butterscotch" or Butterstotch." Then his nickname will be "Butters" (short for Leopold Stotch).

Green Goddess Dressing Attempt

2011-09-29T14:55:00.001-05:00

Back during my culinary school days we spent a day or two learning about salads and salad dressings. Stations were assigned to make different kinds of dressings and salads and I remember one group making a dressing called "Green Goddess Dressing," It was a tart, zesty beautiful green dressing and was the favorite dressing in class.
I was skimming through a "Cooking Light" magazine and found a recipe for a lighter version of the dressing.

Parsley

Garlic, Lemon, and Chives

All the ingredients in a blender. Greek yogurt, light mayo, anchovies, tabasco.

Finished dressing

Boo. It didn't taste as good as I remember it. It probably has to do with the fact that the version I made was low fat and had a thin consistency. I'll have to go hunt down the old recipe we used in class.

Las Vegas~Firefly Tapas Kitchen and Bar

2011-09-26T18:18:00.008-05:00

Way back in June, Mike and I took a quick trip to Las Vegas to attend my sister's wedding. I forgot to bring a hand bag that would fit my new camera, so I was not able to take pictures of all the wonderful food we ate. I did manage to bring my camera to "Firefly Tapas and Kitchen Bar" one night to capture all the yummy food at this bar.

Stuffed Dates-[bacon-wrapped, smoked almond, red wine reduction, blue cheese]. Everyone loved this dish!

Manchego Mac 'n' Cheese-[Baked w/baby shells]

Thai Beef Salad- seared beef, thai dressing, romaine, tomato, cucumber, ginger

Olives, Sweet Butter, and Crostini's

Filet Mignon Sliders-mini burgers w/Serrano ham, cabrales cheese, caramelized onions

Shrimp Tempura-beer-battered, ponzu dipping sauce

Fried Calamari

Firefly Tapas Kitchen and Bar
3900 Paradise Rd.
Las Vegas
702.369.3971

New York CIty~David Burke's Kitchen

2011-09-20T14:00:00.000-05:00

I chose to go to a fancy lunch at "David Burke's Kitchen," which is known for farm-to-table sourced foods with a slight whimsical touch. He also developed some flavor sprays that provide flavor without the calories.

Butter on a slab of salt.

Lobster Soup with a lobster dumpling, coconut fennel creme, red watercress

Salmon Pastrami with horseradish, mustard seeds, beet bellini. I liked how the salmon looked like pastrami slices.

Spicy Spaghetti with shrimp, zucchini, and basil. I had a difficult time eating this dish because the sauce had thai basil in it and I felt that the spicy thai basil flavor overpowered the whole dish.

Herbed mac and cheese with a prosciutto wrapped egg.

Mmm...the egg was delicious and perfectly cooked. Mike and I were trying to figure out how a extremely soft boiled egg was wrapped in prosciutto, deep-fried, and it still retained its soft texture. Mike contemplated that the egg was placed in the refrigerator before it was deep-fried.

Apple Tart with lemon-thyme ice cream, apple cider caramel, and apple crisp.

I really was not a fan of my entree, but we ended the meal on a positive note. The desserts were delicious. The apple tart felt lighter version of apple pie with it's puff pastry crust.

Cassis panna cotta with hibiscus meringue and rose jelly.

A good panna cotta goes a long way in our books. Mike and I are not fans of flower-flavored foods, but we didn't mind the hibiscus and rose in this dessert.

David Burke's Kitchen
23 Grand St.
SOHO, NY 10013

(212) 201-9119

New York City~Doughnut Planet, Gruppo Pizza

2011-09-16T17:26:00.002-05:00

A couple of years ago, I remember watching a show that highlighted "Doughnut Planet" in New York City. It could have been the Travel Channel's "Fried Food Paradise" show or the Food Network's "The Best Thing I Ever Ate."

Some of the donut flavors include: blueberry, banana pecan, carrot cake, green tea. On the episode I watched, I remember them focusing on the peanut butter and jelly donut. The peanut butter and the jelly were all made from scratch. I think the Doughnut Plant even had a secret patented process to make a filled square donut.

Look at the unusual assortment of flavors and colored donuts!

Mmmmm...peanut butter and jelly doughnut! It's really a grape jelly filled donut with a peanut butter glaze.

Mike and I concluded that we would chose Round Rock donuts over this donut, but I do not think it's fair to compare a gourmet donut to a hot, fresh, plain yeast donut. It's also difficult to compare a $3-4 donut to one that is $0.70.

Doughnut Plant
379 Grand St
New York, NY 10002
(212) 505-3700

Mike and I wanted to eat pizza in New York City and one of our friends that lives in New York recommended "Gruppo." I bought the lunch special, which was a drink and two slices of pizza for around $6-7. The pizza was delicious and just the way I like it...thin crust, but thick enough that it has a slight chew to it.

Funny story about the pizza. I wanted to order one slice with olives and one slice with mushrooms. Did you notice that there is broccoli on the pizza? For some reason my brain did not communicate with my mouth and I ordered broccoli pizza. (FYI-broccoli is one of my least favorite vegetables, unless it's stir-fried. No mushy broccoli for me). Mike even looked at me funny, repeated, "broccoli?" and I said "yeah." Dumb, dumb Lauren. I blame it on the heat and getting lost finding restaurants.

Gruppo Pizza

186 Avenue B , Bet. 12th and 11th St.
NY, NY 10009
212-995-2100

New York City~Momofuku Milk Bar

2011-09-15T03:36:00.000-05:00

One of the places I had to check out in New York was David Chang's Milk Bar. I had read about the compost cookies, the crack pie, and all the wonderful creations at his shop.

If you've been keeping up with all of Mike and my travels, you know that we have a tendency to get lost...A LOT. Especially when the maps I download on my ipod touch do not allow us to mark exact locations. We were walking for what seemed like forever. The heat was getting to us and I was getting grumpy. We finally got to his corner and say the signature peach of momofuku. I peered in and saw people eating noodles.

Mike asked, "Do you want to go and eat pork buns and noodles?" I through a small fit and cried, "No, I do not want to eat at Ssam bar. I just ate pizza, you just had Katz, I want dessert, not lunch!"

Then Mike saw the neon pink sign "Milk" and we got really excited. We walked into the clear doors and saw noodles being cooked. I asked one of the servers if I could see the dessert menu. Then he directed me across the street to the Milk Bar.

Ahhh!! We made finally made it there! The Milk Bar is a really small shop with only a couple of bar stools. I am guessing that people just pick up snacks after a late night out or after eating at the Ssam bar. Here's the chalkboard menu.

Truffles

There were so many choices at the Milk Bar, so we settled on buying a trio of cookies. We bought the blueberry and cream cookie, the compost cookie, and the corn cookie. I have now added "creating a cookie with corn flour or corn meal" to my "Things to Do" list.

Look at this cute birthday cake!

Creamsicle and Cereal Milk soft serve. Yummy! It was so refreshing after walking miles to get there. Both flavors were not too sweet (just the way I like it). For some reason I was expecting the cereal milk flavor to taste like the leftover milk in a bowl of Fruity Pebbles,m but it tasted like the leftover milk of corn flakes cereal. It was good, but Mike and I both agreed that the creamsicle flavor was better.

Milk Bar
251 E 13th St
New York, NY 10003
Corner of 13th St / 2nd Ave

Spicy Buffalo Chicken Dip

2011-09-12T17:57:00.000-05:00

I was pleasantly surprised when I came back from my work travels and saw the package containing the KC Masterpiece Buffalo Chicken sauce! Score! As part of the Foodbuzz Tastemaker Program, I received the KC Masterpiece Buffalo sauce.

I was at a bar in Michigan a few months back and had this awesome spicy buffalo chicken dip. It was so good that I told Mike about it and told him, "I want to try to make this!" I have never made buffalo sauce from scratch, so I was so excited when the buffalo sauce came in the mail!

This was my attempt at the dip. It was pretty much a warm dip containing shredded chicken, buffalo sauce, seasonings, and cheese.

Spicy Buffalo Chicken Dip
1/2 cup KC Masterpiece Buffalo Sauce
2 cups cooked Chicken (shredded)
1 8oz package of cream cheese
1/4 cup ranch dressing
1/2 cup Sharp Cheddar Cheese
1 cup Mozzarella Cheese
Salt to taste (~1 tsp)

I was in a time crunch so I boiled some chicken tenders. I bet you could use canned chicken breast, although the texture of the chicken might be more fine and stringy.

Pre-heat oven to 375F.

Beat cream cheese, ranch dressing, and Buffalo Sauce.
Fold in marinated shredded chicken. Spread mixture into a casserole dish or pan. Cover with foil. Bake at 375 in oven for 15-20 minutes. Serve with tortilla chips, or warm bread.

We decided to serve this to some friends who came over for a "Settlers of Catan" game night. Everyone really enjoyed the dip. This recipe will definitely be placed in my "keeper" recipes book!

New York~Museum of Modern Art

2011-09-08T16:29:00.002-05:00

Mike and I both would not classify ourselves as the "artsy fartsy" types, but we I enjoy the occasional look see. We were debating whether we should spend part of our short trip to NYC checking out the museum. We finally decided to go because Van Gogh's "Starrry Night" is housed at the MOMA. Mike spent most of his time in the museum sitting on chairs and benches waiting for me.

Can you see me in the reflection? I'm under the "er" of the word "Modern." The images below are some of my favorite pieces.

Van Gogh's "The Olive Tree"

Piet Mondrian's "Trafalgar Square"

I'm not sure who the artist was, but I love mobiles.

Jackson Pollack's work.

Salvador Dali's "The Persistence of Memory"

It's probably one of Dali's most famous works. It was about the size of a piece of copy paper. I thought it would have been larger.

"Starry Night"~Van Gogh

This is my favorite painting of all time. This is the main reason why Mike and I went to MOMA.

Postsecret work Postsecret is an art project in which people anonymously mail postcards with secrets written on them. Some of the secrets are super funny. Other's not so much. This exhibit was composed of six video screens cycling through various postcards.

A pyramid containing items that distracts people from doing actual work. An iphone is up there on that pyramid.

I saw this while we were walking in the city. I'm guessing it was called "Dandelion" or something along those lines? It's a water sculpture.

MoMa
11 West 53 Street
New York, NY 10019
(212) 708-9400

New York City~Katz Delicatessen

2011-09-01T19:20:00.000-05:00

I love vacations! Gone are the days of summer vacation, winter break, and spring break. Those are now distant memories. But if there is something I like even more, it's schedules, itineraries, and organized events. Yeah, I probably have a minor case of OCD, but I like having a calendar and schedules for each day of a trip.

Recently, due to Mike and my crazy schedules, we haven't had the time to plan out detailed itineraries.  We even have to sit down and make it a point to decide on where we would like to go, and make the necessary arrangements.

We now each choose one place/event that we want to see during our trip. So far this method works for domestic travel, but does not work for international travel. We have used this technique for both our Las Vegas trip and New York trips and it has been quite successful. I'm slowly learning how to chillax and not stress out about the minor details.
     For our New York trip, Mike chose to go to Katz Delicatessen, home of the famous pastrami sandwich. I chose to see at least one musical. We ended up watching Mary Poppins and Avenue Q which were both great!

The trip was packed with adventure and we had a blast! We visited the Tenement Museum, walked across the Brooklyn Bridge (I swear I saw a guy that looked like Zachary Quinto while we were walking, but what are the chances of him being in New York then?), and did a lot of shopping and eating!

Katz's Delicatessen

Mike's pastrami sandwich. He said that it was one of the best pastrami sandwiches he has eaten. Mike doesn't like to use descriptors such as "best" or "number 1." He's very diplomatic and would not say that this pastrami sandwich was the "best sandwich" he had ever eaten because it's difficult to compare a hamburger loaded with bacon to a pastrami sandwich.

Homemade pickles.

Look how crowded this restaurant was! We were there around 10:30-11am, it wasn't even prime lunch time yet!

Katz's Delicatessen has cute little signs hanging from the ceiling at various spot. "Where Harry met Sally"'s diner scene was filmed at Katz's.

After Mike ate his pastrami sandwich, he deemed our trip to New York a success and was fine if we did not do anything else on our trip. I forgot to mention that we went to Katz's on the first full day of our 3.5 day trip to NYC.

Katz Delicatessen
205 East Houston Street (corner of Ludlow St)
New York City, 10002

New York City~Social Eatz

2011-08-29T15:00:00.000-05:00

Are any of you fans of Top Chef? "Social Eats" is a new restaurant that Angelo Sosa from Season 7 of Top Chef. Mike and I did not religiously watch the show (remember we don't have cable tv), but from what we saw, we thought that Angelo should have won that season. Of course we had no way to judge his food; we just based it on the judges' review of his food.

Bulgogi Burger

Mike thought that the meat would have been sliced versus ground. His burger was not anything special. I took one bite and then happily enjoyed my burger.

I ordered the Bi Bim Bap burger, which won the "Greatest Burger in America." I'm not sure who gave out this award, but this burger was flavorful....almost too flavorful. Imagine a patty of beef topped with kochujang pickled shredded vegetables, a sunny side up egg and shredded lettuce. With all the fusion dishes out now (i.e. korean tacos, irish nachos), you would think someone would have come up with a burger like this sooner.

It was a messy burger with all the pickled vegetables and egg yolk oozing out of it, but I didn't care. It was so good! The next time I make burgers at home, I'll probably try to replicate it.

We also shared a side of crispy fires. They were okay. They were served with some concoction of mayonnaise or cheese. We added some sriracha sauce to it and it was tasty. You could skip the fries and just order the burger.

Social Eatz
232 East 53rd St.
New York, NY 10022
(212) 207-3339

Where did we go?

2011-08-28T10:19:00.000-05:00

Mike and I just (when I say "just" I mean 3 weeks ago, pre-puppy) took a spontaneous trip using American Airlines miles. We used over 100,000 miles for our round trip tickets and hotel stay for three nights.
Here's some pictures from our trip. Any guesses on where we were?

Texas Restaurants~Tim Love's Lonesome Dove Round 2

2011-08-26T15:50:00.001-05:00

After last year's Restaurant Week, Mike and I concluded that one of our favorite restaurants in Texas was Tim Love's Lonesome Dove in Fort Worth Texas. A bunch of our friends decided to go there this year, so we quickly jumped on the bandwagon and joined in for dinner. I describe this restaurant with, "I rarely eat meat, but I love the steak at Lonesome Dove!"

Texas Yellow Squash Soup, Gruyère Cheese, Crème Fraîche

Grilled Corn, Cucumber, Heirloom Tomato Salad, Red Wine Vinaigrette

Watermelon Granita-Palate cleansers must be the trendy. I had a palate cleanser at both Lonesome Dove and Abacus.

Roasted Garlic Stuffed Beef Tenderloin, Western Plaid Hash, Syrah Demi-Glace.

All five of us ordered the same entree, so there is only one picture of a steak. We were at a steakhouse so no one opted for the pork chop or fish. This was the main feature of the night. I thought my medium tenderloin just melted. Mike said that my piece was better than his. One of the other boys was satisfied with his meal, but would have liked it if the meat was 33% bigger.

Ricotta Cheese Cake with Balsamic Glazed Strawberries and Tuile

This year's menu was almost identical to last year's Restaurant Week menu. The main difference that Mike and I noted was that the dessert switched from a butterscotch pudding to a ricotta cheesecake. The cheesecake was not a fan favorite. It had a gritty texture and the first and last time I made ricotta cheesecake, mine was much more smooth than this one. I don't understand why Lonesome Dove switched from a pudding to a cheesecake. My initial analysis is that a cheesecake is more expensive and time consuming, and takes up more refrigeration space than last year's delicious butterscotch pudding.

Balsamic Glazed Strawberries sans cheesecake for Kendell

All in all, we had a great time and really enjoyed the meal. While a few of us were waiting for the rest of the party to arrive, we sat at the bar, enjoyed some elk sliders (yum!) and drinks, and met and took pictures with Tim Love! How great is that?

Boston Restaurants~Toro

2011-08-21T10:49:00.000-05:00

For those of you who did not know, I spent about 1.5 months in a city south of Boston earlier this year. Sometimes some co-workers and I were scheduled for the 1st shift and drove up to Boston to enjoy the great food in the city.

According to the Boston Magazine, Toro is rated in the Top 50 restaurants in Boston. It was also voted as the reader's favorite for tapas in the Boston Phoenix. A couple co-workers and I tried to eat here earlier during our travels, but at 8pm we were told there was a 1.5 hour wait for three people (Toro does not take reservations). Armed with this information, a couple of weeks later, a few of us arrived a couple of minutes after the restaurant opened.

Escalivada Catalana-Smoked eggplant, onion, peppers, and tomatoes with sherry vinegar and olive oil

Gambas al Akilo-Griddled garlic shrimp

Costila de Bourguigon-Braised beef short ribs with bacon, mushrooms, and pearl onions

I was looking at the menu online and I do not remember what drink I ordered. All I know is that it contained gin and grapefruit juice. The drink that did me in. I had to give my drink to a friend to finish because less than a third of the way through, I felt kind of funny.

Lamb Sausage-One of the specials for the day

Valenciana Paella-Shrimp, mussels, clams, chorizo, chicken, and Calasparra rice.

This was one of our least favorite dishes. The texture of the rice was a little undercooked, but when I told Mike this he said that he read that traditional paella contains undercooked rice.

Calamar-Marinated grilled squid with fresh chickpeas, preserved bergamot, wild greens, and mint

Another tapas containing lamb. (how descriptive!)

Corn-By far, the favorite tapas of the evening. This was the only dish that we ordered seconds of! Look at all that mayonnaise and cheese!

Toro
1704 Washington Street
Boston, MA 02118
(617) 536-4300

Dallas Restaurants~Abacus

2011-08-19T19:13:00.001-05:00

It's that time of the year again. th KRLD Restaurant Week! This past Tuesday my book club friends and I visited Kent Rathbun's Abacus restaurant. Kent Rathbun was one of the few chefs that actually won against the Iron Chef's on the TV Food Network. I would classify Abacus as a fine dining restaurant with an Asian flair.

We started the dinner off with lobster shooters. EVERYONE talks about the lobster shooters. If you check out the yelp.com reviews, people rave about these deep-fried lobster won-tons in a coconut curry sauce. The presentation is cute and served using a sake set and the sauce is poured over the won-tons.

There were five of us there. Guess who had the extra shooter? Me! I guess I should not open my mouth and say that someone had to eat it before the wonton got really soggy.

Cumin crusted scallop sope, chipotle creama, and charred sweet corn relish

Soy marinated duck spring rolls, napa cabbage slaw, spicy peanut sauce, apricot syrup

Crispy Maryland softshell crab, meyer lemon aoili,living watercress, smoked tomato vinaigrette. This is what I ordered and it was delicious!

Intermezzo: Cucumber-Lime Spritzer

Pecan crusted pork chop, blue cheese polenta, fuji apple-golden raisin slaw, shiner bock bbq glaze. This picture does not do the pork chop justice. This piece of meat was dinosaur huge!

Blackened Trout, smoked tomato-jack cheese grits, crawfish-nantua butter. I debated between ordering the trout (who eats trout if you're from Hawaii?) and the salmon. The waiter recommended the trout and it was tasty. I loved the crunchy grits and liked the cajun-asian flavors.

Hickory grilled Kobe hanger steak, smoked marble potatoes, grilled leeks, applewood bacon-roasted garlic vinaigrette

Applewood Smoked Bacon "Shells and Cheese" Meh, this dish was mediocre. I had one bite and was overpowered by the strong massive amount of cheese.

Mixed berry buttermilk pie, Banana chocolate mousse cake with bananas foster sauce, Peach almond shortcake with orange liquor whip. I was a bit underwhelmed by the desserts here. I felt that the appetizers and main dishes outshone the desserts.

Tonight we are off to Lonesome Dove with another bunch of friends. Mike and I enjoyed Lonesome Dove last year so much that we chose to go back again this year!

Abacus

4511 McKinney Ave,

Dallas, TX 75205
214-559-3111

Boston Travels~Lobster

2011-08-18T16:29:00.000-05:00

I just finished reading "The Happiness Project" by Gretchen Rubin and I realized that I do like blogging. Sometimes, however, it feels like a chore to blog when I become backed up with old pictures and posts that the task seems quite daunting. I always seem to come with some excuse or another why theses posts are not as frequent as I would like (i.e. I've been traveling for 3 months straight, my puppy chewed my laptop power cable and I have to wait for my new cable to come in, I need to cook dinner or clean the house). So....I have made it one of my small goals to post at least once a week. That way I can catch up on all the food pictures from Boston, Michigan, Las Vegas, and Texas. Wish me luck!

***This is a post I started a couple of months ago and forgot to post***
After reading all these posts about the food we were consuming in Boston, one would think that all we did was have lavish meals between our multiple naps each day. The work travel at times were brutal and all the team members worked their tails off. I'm just highlighting the few times we splurged and had notable great dinners.
At the end of one of the big milestones for our project, we were invited over to a colleague's house near the water. We arrived at his house to the sight of this bowl of lobsters!

The night started off with this HUGE bowl of lobsters. I think 2-3 lobsters were budgeted for each person, so I bet there were at least fifty lobsters in this bowl!

Too bad Mike wasn't there to see it. He loves lobsters!

The bowl of lobsters at the end of the night.

Fresh Clams.

Hummus Dips

Appetizers

It was a great night full of food, fun, and good company.

Introducing Ranger Morkie!

2011-08-09T22:38:00.001-05:00

Hi Everyone! My name is Ranger Morkie and I am Mike and Lauren's new puppy! I'm a yorkshire terrier and I am almost 5 months old. Here's some pictures of me so you can see how cute I am. I'm only 6 lbs, but I only look big because I'm fluffy. I love people and I love when my tummy is rubbed.

I also love to pee! I'm pretty sneaky about it too. It only took me 2 minutes to have my first accident in the house (#1 and 2!!!). I spend my time trying to keep my mommy and daddy on their toes because I love them so much!

So, as you can tell from the pictures.....we got a puppy! We've only had him for a couple of days, but he's quite a handful. He's really smart, but also really rascal. Every so often, we'll blog about our new puppy!

Lettuce Stems

2011-07-31T13:43:00.001-05:00

Have you ever heard of a vegetable called "lettuce stems"? I saw this vegetable at the Asian grocery store the other day and they looked like mini trees. I was also intrigued by the fact that these vegetables were called "lettuce stems" because I never thought that lettuce had stems. I once had to stir-fry iceberg lettuce in a class once and ever since then I have had the mentality that lettuce should not be cooked.

I just chopped the lettuce stems up and stir-fried them in a little bit of oil and garlic. I am not sure if I cooked it correctly because some of the pieces had a strong bitter taste to it. The majority of the other pieces reminded me of a cross between broccoli and celery. It was interesting. Would I buy it again? Probably not.

Book List

2011-07-28T19:46:00.002-05:00

In a previous post, I mentioned that Mike and I cancelled our cable TV subscription in October 2010. I started thinking about it and since we turned of the tube, both Mike and I have been reading a lot more. Mike's book choices have gravitated more towards the classics, 4th grade children's books, and books I randomly leave around the apartment. I've been choosing books based on recommendations by others, book club selections, and books I've heard about in various media outlets.
I've always loved reading books for pleasure, but I often read more books than I give myself credit for.

Here's a list of the books I've read since October:
Hunger Games Series-Suzanne Collins
(Hunger Games, Catching Fire, Mockingjay)
*Girl with the Dragon Tattoo Trilogy-Stieg Larsson
(The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, The Girl Who Played with Fire, The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest)
*The Help-Kathryn Stockett
Onward-Howard Schultz
*Something Borrowed-Emily Giffin
*Friday Night Knitting Club-Kate Jacobs
Cinderella Ate my Daughter-Peggy Orenstein
*Fortune Cookie Chronicles-Jennifer 8. Lee
*Pomegranate Soup-Marsha Mehran
*Burnt Shadows-Kamila Shamsie
* denotes a book club book

I'd have to say that my favorite books have been the Hunger Games series and the Stieg Larsson trilogy. Mike and I cannot wait until the "Hunger Games" movie comes out in 2012!
What have you been reading? Do you have any recommendations?

Boston Bakeries~Flour Bakery and Cafe

2011-07-24T20:49:00.000-05:00

Flour Bakery was another Boston restaurant that I wanted to check out. Joanne Chang of Flour was named as one of the "Outstanding Pastry Chef" in the 2011 James Beard Awards.

This is a picture of the Cambridge location. I am not the best driver in the world, so it took me a while to arrive at this little shop. Luckily, my Driver's Ed training came in handy as I easily parallel parked in coveted street parking.

I ordered the grilled roast chicken, brie, arugula, peppers, and caramelized onion panini. Yummy. When faced with a multitude of choices at restaurants, the key food items that I gravitate towards are "caramelized onions," "arugula," and "brie." Although, if I were to go back to the cafe, I would probably order the intriguing "roast chicken, avocado, and jicama .sandwich.

I read a bunch of yelp reviewers and people raved about the sticky buns with sticky caramel and pecans. I thought it looked better than it tasted.

Mmmm...now this lemon raspberry cake was good! I would recommend this cake over the sticky bun. It was lemon pound cake, tart lemon curd, raspberries, and buttercream.

On another trip back to Boston, a couple of co-workers and I checked out another location of Flour. I saw a bunch of people ordering the "house made raspberry seltzer" at the Cambridge location, so I decided to test it out. Yum yum! This soda was tasted like fresh raspberries...it was so good that I decided to make my own syrup and soda at home. My only complaint about the seltzer was that it was too sweet for my tastes, but most beverages are too sweet to me.

Lemon lust-creamy, tart lemon curd. Let's just say that the "Flour" bakery makes a superb lemon curd. This is the same stuff that was in the lemon raspberry cake.

I also tried the dark chocolate chunk cookie and that cookie was delicious too. Full of chocolate and not too sweet.

Ooey-gooey caramel nut tart

Flour Bakery and Cafe

190 Massachusetts Ave., Cambridge MA 02139

Boston Restaurants~East Coast Grill

2011-07-22T13:14:00.000-05:00

Once in a while (when the schedule allows), I do take advantage of the perks of work travel. One night, while we were working in a city south of Boston, a few of us drove up to Boston and had a nice dinner at an eclectic restaurant in Cambridge, MA called the "East Coast Grill."

Creamy Clam and Corn Chowder with chiles and sweet potatoes

Deep Fried mahi with sweet chili and herb salad. This dish was so good that I tried to replicate it at home. I thought that an herb salad containing cilantro, thai basil, mint, and other green herbs was different from your typical salad containing lettuce.

Grilled vegetables

Grilled Spice Crusted Mahi Mahi with rice and beans, pineapple salsa, and fried plantains

Grilled cumin-encrusted shrimp with sweet potatoes, papaya salsa, and jicama slaw. This is the dish I ordered. It was tasty, but the fried mahi appetizer I ordered was so much better than this dish.

Grilled Steak with sweet potatoes

Banana Split sundae with mango ice cream

I think this was a chocolate coffee pie.

Chocolate and peanut butter pie with a side of candied bacon

East Coast Grill

1271 Cambridge Street
Cambridge, MA 02139-1338

(617) 491-6568

Chicago Travels~Garrett's Popcorn

2011-07-11T21:45:00.000-05:00

So...I thought the traveling was done for a while. I have a mini-trip tomorrow to Indiana. We'll be flying to the Chicago airport, so maybe I'll have a little snack of Garrett's Popcorn.

Garrett's is famous for it's "Chicago Mix" which is a mixture of cheese popcorn and caramel corn. The combination sounds weird and verging on the lines of "gross" but this sweet/savory mix is quite addicting. Whenever I would venture up to Chicago while living in Illinois I would purchase this mixture of popcorn.

Yum!
Even though the cheese popcorn is bright orange and oily, this popcorn is delicious! Oh and beware, eating this popcorn results in orange-stained fingers.

Finally Done!

2011-07-02T22:00:00.000-05:00

In less than 24 hours I should be back in Texas and done with all the work travel that has lasted about 11 weeks. I haven't seen Mike in two weeks. He was gone for two weeks to California for a training for work. But since April there were probably times I had not seen him for over two weeks.

I have not cooked a meal since April 13th. I have tried pretty much every salad at Panera. I can tell you what take-out restaurants have the best salads. I cringe when I think about eating sandwiches, subs, pizza, or anything with a massive load of bread (especially pita). I also will not be eating any fried food for a long time. *end of my venting*

Yay! I can resume my normal life and get back to blogging!

Traveling

2011-05-15T11:32:00.001-05:00

Hi Everyone! My business travel was extended for a couple more works, so this week marks the fifth week that I am up in Massachusetts. I have not had the time to post on this blog nor keep up with reading other blogs. :(
Depending on the schedule, I literally have been working 12-18 hour days and my spare time is spent showering, eating, and sleeping and the occasional run on the treadmill. But luckily I get to go home on some weekends and get to see Mike and friends.

I arrived back home in Dallas around midnight on Friday. Then this morning (Sunday 5/15) while I was catching the parking lot shuttle, another passenger the shuttle asked me, "Weren't you on this shuttle on Friday night?"

"Yes sir. Yes I was."

Texas Restaurants~Whiskey Cake Kitchen and Restaurant

2011-05-05T09:37:00.000-05:00

We initially were planning on eating at Nazar Turkish Restaurant in Addison, but about an hour before we were supposed to meet, I realized that the restaurant had closed. If a restaurant's website does not work, and their listed number results in a call to a disconnected phone number, there is a good chance that the restaurant is no longer in service.
We quickly changed our plans and met for dinner at the Whiskey Cafe, which is a fairly new restaurant that opened in late 2010.

Fried Green Tomatoes with remoulade dipping sauce

Hand Cut French Fries

BBQ Banh MI Wood smoked pulled pork, sweet and tangy veggies, arugula, cilantro, WC BBQ, crispy baguette

Smoked Turkey StackSmoked turkey breast, mayo, frisee, tomato, cranberry chutney, and muenster cheese. I guess it's like Thankgiving foods in a sandwich.

Hot Pastrami Melt-House rubbed and smoked, pickled cabbage, gruyere cheese, whole grain mustard, crisp baguette (they served it on marbled rye).

Holmes Farm Bird: Half spit-roasted chicken, sweet potato fennel hash, roasted shallot herb jus. This is what I ordered. I thought that the chicken was moist and tasty, but I did not like the weird sweet flavor combination of the hash and the herb jus.

We shared one serving of the whiskey cake (toffee torte, Bookers Anglaise, spiced pecans, and whipped cream) and the pie of the day which was a blackberry ice cream cake on an oreo cookie crust. The ice cream pie sounds good too, right, but it had an artificial "Fruity Pebbles" cereal to it.
We regret not ordering two (or even three) orders of whiskey cake to share. The whiskey cake was definitely the highlight of the meal and I'm now going to search for a whiskey cake recipe so I can attempt to make something similar at home!

Whiskey Cake
3601 Dallas Parkway
Plano, TX 75093
(972) 993-2253

Sweet Experiments~ Ricotta Cheesecake and Butterscotch Pot de Creme

2011-05-03T05:47:00.000-05:00

The other week, I bought a 3 lb tub of ricotta cheese and made lasagna. Initially, I was planning on just using cottage cheese in my lasagna, but Mike said, "What? Lasagna with ricotta cheese tastes so much better than lasagna with cottage cheese."
I had a lot of ricotta cheese left, so I decided to attempt to make a cheesecake. My mom had bought me a set of spring form pans a while back, and this was the first time I put them to use. I decided to try Giada DeLaurentis' ricotta cheesecake recipe.

The flavor of the cheesecake was delicious. There was a hint of honey in the smooth creamy cheesecake. Unfortunately, that's what my final product ended up looking like (and I served it anyways). I was taking a nap at home and I instructed a friend to take the cheesecake out of the oven when the timer buzzed. Well the pan and the waterbath was too hot for my friend to handle, and she ended up dropping the pan into the sink. We were able to salvage some of the cheesecake. Oh well, I guess that means that I just have to try to make it again

Pot de Crème

I’ve been obsessed with pot de crème after I had a butterscotch pot de crème at Neighborhood Services earlier this year. It was served in a cute little glass jar, which I now refer to as “the pot of goodness.” The serving size was too rich and large to be a single portion, but perfect for sharing.

Pot de crème is basically a heavy cream custard consisting of egg yolks, heavy cream, milk, and sugar. Man, rattling off all the ingredients just made me gain a couple of pounds.
So I decided to test out a pot de crème recipe. I surfed the Internet and found a butterscotch pot de crème recipe.

The final result was a really sweet slight burnt caramel flavored pot de crème. It made me start thinking, “What is butterscotch flavor?” Can you actually make a butterscotch flavor? I feel that butterscotch falls into the “caramel” flavor camp. What do you think?
At the moment, pot de crèmes are one of my favorite desserts. If I owned a small cute-sy dessert shop, I would serve small portions of pot de crème so people could have a small indulgence.

Texas Restaurants~Nonna

2011-04-29T16:32:00.002-05:00

Nonna is a small family-owned Italian restaurant in Highland Park, Texas. A co-worker of mine recommended this restaurant a long time ago to me and for some reason or another, Mike and I have not made our way down there until now. Nonna is also on the Dallas Magazine's Top 100 Restaurants in Dallas.
Reservations are a must for this tiny restaurant that has a bar area and about 15 tables.

Best service at a restaurant ever! Well at least the best service that Mike and I can remember we've had for a long time. I swear there were either microphones/video cameras at our table or our server was extremely attentive to our actions.
Mike and I decided to split an appetizer and the 5 course pasta tasting. Throughout the meal, Jonathan, the Sous Chef came out and explained each pasta dish to us. Crazy.

Charcoal grilled Monterey Bay squid with salsa verde, controne beans and taggiasca olives

The first pasta dish, Tonnarelli with razor clams, fennel Spaghettii alla that arrived was just a tad bit on the bland side, so Mike and I added a tiny pinch of salt to it.

Carbonara: guanciale, farm egg, pecorino, English peas and black pepper. The carbonara was the next dish and it was extremely salty, almost unbearable to eat.
The next dishes had just the right amount of salt.

Tortelloni of porchetta with dried orange zest and fennel pollen

Ravioli of Maine lobster

Pappardelle al ragu Bolognese

Praline Nougatine Semifreddo with Pistachios and Acacia Honey. This dessert was recommended by our server. I did not care fot the dish and he saw the look of disappointment on my face. Soo...he brought out the sticky toffee pudding for it. Yummy!

Sticky Toffee Pudding

So would we go back to this restaurant? Mike and I are still debating this. The food was good. I'd give it 3-3.5 stars out of 5. But the service was exceptional. If the service was mediocre, would scratch this restaurant off our list. Face it, we were in Highland Park (one of the richer areas in Dallas) and Mike and I look much younger than we are. Servers could have written us off as little kids, but no, the staff was extremely attentive.

Nonna
4115 Lomo Alto Drive
Dallas, TX 75219
(214) 521-1800

Open Mon-Sat 5:30pm-10pm

Traveling and Status

2011-04-20T15:52:00.000-05:00

In the past week and the weeks to come, I will have clocked 17 days of travel in 23 days. That means I will have travelled more than 70% of the days and slept in my own bed only 6 of those nights. I am not at the level of George Clooney's character in "Up in the Air" but maybe after all this year's travel I might feel like it. This also means that the blog post will be limited...again.

Travelling has its perks such as loyalty rewards programs. As of today, these are the statuses I hold in loyalty programs. I don't know if I should be proud or sad.

American Airlines: Platinum Status
-note-worthy perks: double miles, four free 500-mile upgrades for every 10K miles traveled.

Marriott Hotels: Silver Status
-note-worthy perks: not sure. late checkout?
Based on this year's work schedule, I will probably hit Gold status by July.

Starbucks: Gold Status (this wasn't achieved as a travel perk)
-note-worthy perks: a free drink on your bday, one free drink for every 15 drinks purchased, free refills on tea and coffee while in the store.

Gap Card: Silver Status (okay this isn't a travel perk either)
-note-worthy perks: free basic hemming at Banana Republic, free shipping

Here's a quick tip when traveling and renting cars. Do you know how to determine which side of the car the gas tank is on? If you look near your odometer there is a picture of a gas pump. Next to the picture of the gas pump is a little triangle. If the triangle is on the right side of the gas pump, your tank is on the right and vice versa.

Dude, Sweet Chocolate

2011-04-12T17:00:00.002-05:00

For the longest time, I've been wanting to go to a store called "Dude, Sweet Chocolate" far off in Oak Cliff (South Dallas). Last year, during a white elephant gift exchange at a Christmas party, I was fortunate (as compared to the Harry Potter Malfroy figurine Mike ended up with) to end up with a box of rose petal-containing truffles from this store. I do not even like rose flavored foods or rose petals, but found myself enjoying this strange combinations of flavor in this box of truffles.

Here's a picture of the different products Dude, Sweet Chocolate sells.

Dude, Sweet Chocolate is a tiny little store that almost looks like a warehouse. One side of the store houses the kitchen where the chocolates are made (I think), and the other side serves as the store front.
The saleperson was beyond generous with the chocolate samples. I think I tried about six different items, including an artisan chocolate (~$2/a piece). The salesperson let us sample "crack in a box" which was like an extremely nutty rocky road. Dark chocolate coating a mixtures of macademia nuts, soy nuts, hazelnuts, and almonds.

We ended up purchasing a box of chocolate toffee and a box artisan chocolates. I really wanted to like the "Fungus Amoungus" which was a chocolate/toffee containing porcini mushrooms and pumpkin seeds-but the earthy musty flavor was a little too much for me. I kept thiking of moss and cleaning a stuffy room.
I also sampled the "Luchador" which was a chocolate toffee with apple butter and tamarind.
I settled on the "Vincotto" which contained red wine vinegar, figs, and argon oil. Mike and I didn't know what argon oil was and thought that it might be a chemical on the periodic table. We asked the salesperson and she said it was an oil from almonds or something. This toffee was pretty good.

I didn't realize it at the time, but after looking at the company's website did I find out that I bought the "DUDE" chocolates. I think the chocolate flavors are geared to men's taste buds. It's $12 for a box of six pieces.

This is a picture of the DUDE chocolates that came in the box I purchased.
Parique -Louisanna tobacco, cognac
Irish Channel - Laphroaig Irish Whisky, pure pine
Marakesh - fresh dates, raz al hanout
Black Gold - black garlic, sweet wild mushrooms
Puro and Olive - 74% San Dominican, black olive salt
Miso Happy - red miso, tahini, black sesame

SWEET chocolates, that I decided against purchasing. I think I would have enjoyed the sweet chocolates better. I did not care for any of the DUDE chocolates. Mike and I both concluded that some of the DUDE chocolates tasted like chemicals and had odd flavors too them. The best one that I could stomach was the black olive salt one.

Tahitian - passionfruit, ginger salt
Sassy Frasy - banana, sassaparilla, birch bark
Hill Country - Zip Code honey, lavender, Dallas Mozz. Co. goat crema
Lemon Buttermilk - fresh lemon, buttermilk
Indian Rose - rosepetal jam, marzipan
Baccus - Texas cabernet, golden raisin

I have mixed feelings about "Dude, Sweet Chocolate." I'd like to think I have an adventurous palate, but I'd prefer chocolates with simple flavors and additions. I admire Dude, Sweet Chocolates flavor experiments, but I think that the flavor combinations are too extreme for me. My advice would be sample the adventurous flavors of chocolate prior to purchasing them.

Dude, Sweet Chocolate is a small ~~cute~~ hip place to visit in Oak Cliff. I kind of enjoyed my first visit to the Oak Cliff, Bishop Arts District. It kind of reminds me of West End in Brisbane, Australia or what I imagine Portland, Oregon would feel like.

Dude, Sweet Chocolate
408 West 8th Street
Dallas, TX 75208
(214) 943-5943

Korean Mandoo Making

2011-04-07T18:00:00.002-05:00

Korean mandoo was one of the recipes I wanted to attempt to perfect this year. It is time-consuming to make, but you can make a lot of it and either give it away or freeze it for future dinners.

Chinese potsticker wrappers(~$1for the pack) and Korean mandoo wrappers (~$3.50)

Buying mandoo wrappers at the Asian market is a tricky process. Some of them say "potsticker wrappers," "wonton wrappers," or "shumai wrappers." Some contain eggs, some contain only wheat flour, while others also contain rice flour.

In this past season of "Top Chef" one of the contestants purchased the incorrect wrapper, and ended up steaming wrappers that were supposed to be boiled. Be careful when purchasing the wrappers.

I gambled when I purchased the wrappers and hoped that they would work for mandoo making based on the pictures on the packaging.

Sweet potato noodles.

Cabbage, chives, chopped round onion

Crumbled drained tofu

Mixture of ground pork, tofu, noodles, chives, cabbage, onion, raw eggs, garlic, ginger, sesame oil, and salt and pepper. I did not measure the ingredients, I just arbitrarily added amounts of ingredients, skewed to a filling containing more vegetables than meat.

I like to place a lot of filling into the wrapper.

Frying the mandoo. We first pan fried the mandoo in oil, then added water to the pan and "steamed" the mandoo.

Both the potsticker wrappers resulted in a similar product. The Korean mandoo wrappers were a little bigger than my mandoo press, so there was extra noodle edge. The wrapper tastes were similar, so I would personally buy the cheaper wrapper from now on.

Mike and I enjoyed the mandoo, but as we started eating the frozen mandoo a couple more times, our enjoyment started to wane. At the moment, we prefer Ajinomoto's frozen gyoza much more than my mandoo.
If I am going to pursue Korean mandoo making this year, 1)I have to make less mandoo, 2) invite people over to eat the mandoo, or 3)or develop a super awesome flavor profile for my mandoo that we enjoy a lot more.

Dallas Restaurants~Yucatan Taco Stand Tequila Bar and Grill

2011-04-05T11:30:00.000-05:00

The first time we went here was back in December 2010 on a whim during my lunch break. A few of my friends wanted to eat at the Yucatan Taco Stand (I guess I had a say in the restaurant choice because they asked me if I wanted to eat sandwiches or tacos. I chose tacos). Since Mike was off that day, I quickly called him and told him to join us for lunch and at the same time drive over and meet us at the restaurant because I had left my coupon at home. I also forgot to tell him to grab my camera so that I could take pictures of all the food.

Chips and Salsa. I like the thin tortilla chips here.

So this is the second time we are eating at the same restaurant, in a span of weeks. Woo....that must mean that we liked this restaurant. Nah, really what happened is that a friend from back home was road-tripping it from the East Coast to the West Coast and happened to be in Texas. He wanted to eat at a hole-in-the-wall type of restaurant and Mike and I were racking our brains trying to brainstorm a restaurant. We live near Dallas and over the past year, we've determined that Texas has almost all the American chain restaurants.
We finally settled on Yucatan Taco Stand, because it's close to my work place and I don't like to drive into Dallas.

Carne de Puerco Grilled Latin Sandwich with plantain chips

Mike ordered the spicy aged chorizo burrito, and was underwhelmed with this dish. So underwhelmed that I some how managed to lose the picture of the burrito. His lunch choice of the fish tacos was a better selection. I think we determined that if you stick with the tempura battered fish in the tacos or taco salad, you cannot go wrong.

Nachos with garlic shredded beef. These nachos are massive! The first time I ate at the Yucatan Taco Stand, I saw other people order these nachos and I thought, "I have to order those!" The nachos were good, but I actually preferred the salad with the original tempura fish with balsamic shallot vinaigrette and spicy herb buttermilk dressing.
Yucatan Taco Stand Tequila Bar and Grill
2809 Preston Rd.
Frisco, TX 75034
Phone: 469-362-6161

Texas Restaurants~Miyoshi

2011-04-03T19:28:00.000-05:00

Every so often Mike has a craving for Japanese food, especially sushi. We've been hesitant to eat sushi in Texas because we have been spoiled with all the fresh fish back in Hawaii. A friend of mine mentioned that Miyoshi's has a pretty good all you can eat sushi for $15 (lunch) or $25 (dinner). Dinner is more expensive because rolls containing more fish are offered at that time.

The rules for the "All You Can Eat" sushi were the standard rules as all the typical "all you can eat" places. If there is a lot of extra food on your plate, you are charged a fee. Also, at Miyoshi's you have to order the sushi in rounds. The sushi is made fresh at the sushi bar (which is a plus), and I personally think that the extra time in between rounds reduces the amount of sushi you can consume because you tummy becomes full.

Round 1: We ordered the spicy tuna roll and the cowboy roll (crab meat mixed with chopped calamari tempura, crunch flour, served with a spicy mayo and unagi sauce). Mike ordered a piece of salmon and hamachi to test out the nigiri.

We tried the cajun roll (Fried crawfish inside with a spicy mayo and unagi sauce) and the crunch roll (masago, scallion on a spicy tuna roll topped with spicy mayo and unagi sauce). Mike was satisfied with the nigiri, so he ordered more pieces in the next round. I stuck with trying the different specialty rolls.

Chicken Teriyaki. It is also part of the all you can eat sushi deal.

Las Vegas Roll (California roll deep-fried, served with eel sauce on the top). I didn't care for this one because the inside sushi was warm due to the deep-frying. The cowboy roll again.

Repeats of our favorite sushi. The spicy tuna roll, the crunch rolls, and Mike's nigiri sushi.

As you can see by all the pictures, we got our money's worth at Miyoshi's. I think that the staff was surprised that two little Asians could consume so much food.

So far, this is the best sushi we've eaten in Texas. But, we haven't had a lot of sushi in Texas. We tried a conveyor belt style sushi bar near our house and it was disappointing. Two small pieces of sushi for about $2 with sub-par fish. I think this positive experience at Miyoshi was encouraging enough for Mike and I to start venturing out to other sushi restaurants.

Miyoshi

3400 Preston Road
Plano, TX 75093-7454
(972) 801-9097

G'nosh Art Studio

2011-03-24T19:13:00.001-05:00

A couple of months ago, a few friends and I attended a painting class at G'nosh, a painting studio.

Here's the wall of completed art pieces. G'nosh offers 1-2 classes a day and you can register for the classes online. Depending on what kind of artwork you are into (or what you would like hanging on a wall in your house), you can select the class. A couple that was at the class at the same time as off did something pretty neat. Instead of painting the identical pieces, the girl painting the left half of the image on her canvas and the guy painted the right half of the image on his canvas.

This is the instructor's finished painting. We were supposed to strive for something similar to his painting.

Here's the first step of my progress.

The techniques we used for our painting was a "sponge" technique using acrylic paint and "parachutes" of newspaper as our brush. We then lightly pressed the paint on to the canvas and blended the paints together. It was kind of neat because we were only given primary colors (red, blue, yellow) paint, but through the dabbing of paint, we blended the colors to make green and orange splotches to that were supposed to resemble water and the sunset.

My finished art piece.

I've concluded that I'm not very girly or artistic. Throughout the class I keep thinking, "how can I finish this piece as fast as possible?" I also kept thinking, "hmmm... there's a reason why I am studied science...it was probably due to my lack of artistic skills." My girlfriends who I painted with loved the experience. They even bought coupons to paint at another studio....I think I'll stick with baking as my hobby.

G'nosh Richardson
1310 W. Campbell Rd.
Richardson, TX 75080

Mike's Haircut

2011-03-22T21:42:00.000-05:00

I've been quite slow with the posts. I meant to post this early in February, but got caught up with work and life. Last month for fun, I attempted to cut Mike's hair...on my own. I never had the desire to cut anyone's hair, but Mike thought it would be fun. Plus if things went really bad, we could always drive some where to get his hair professionally cut or we could just buzz all of it off.

This is a picture of his hair prior to the cut. The hair cut (or shall I say that the*attempt* of the hair cut) was comical. 1) I've never used clippers in my life; and 2) Mike had to walk me through the process because I've never seen a guy get his hair cut before.

So apparently, the first thing you are supposed to do is put a guard on the clippers and shave up the sides of the head until you feel like stopping. Mike warned me that a "bowl" haircut would be bad. Then once you've done that, you have to spray the hair with water and use a comb and the clippers without the guard to bevel/gradient cut the cut hair and the side hair. My interpretation...I imagined I was trimming a hedge and getting rid of extra hair that was in my way.

Mike proceeded to tell me that I had to decide on the length of hair I wanted to cut from the top and then treat his hair in "columns" and "rows." I had to grab a section of hair between my fingers and cut it about 1/2" from the top and make sure that all the hair in the "columns" were the same length. Then to check my work on the columns, I had to grab hair in rows to make sure the hair in the columns were correctly cut. Isn't that confusing? I actually understood this concept because when I go for a haircut, the hair stylist does something similar.

Ta-da. The finished haircut with a slight rat bite. Throughout the haircut I kept telling Mike to just go to the neighborhood salon to get his haircut. The $15-20 we saved was not worth the stress of the haircut and plus Mike would have to walk around with that haircut for weeks.
But Mike's a trooper...or he's adamant on me becoming his personal barber. I cut his hair again this past weekend and he says that it's an even better haircut then the first time. Now he's banking on the chance that my learning curve will peak on the third attempt. Hopefully I will be traveling when he needs another haircut and he'll just go get it professionally done.

Mochi Pounding

2011-03-16T15:08:00.000-05:00

Random story about me...growing up, I always wanted to marry into a "mochi-pounding" family. Isn't that odd? This was not a criterion on my "must-have" list for a potential spouse; it was more of an optional added bonus. During the week between Christmas and New Year's Eve, there would always be a news segment on TV about families gathering together to pound mochi. It would be an all-day event in which families, friend, neighbors, and calabash aunties and uncles would all come together to pound mochi for the new year. My immediate family is small, so I always thought it would be nice to be have large family gatherings filled with fun and laughter.

Lucky for me, not only did I marry a nice sweet guy, I also married into a huge (at least I think it's large) extended family. It still overwhelms me at the amount of relatives at Mike's family gatherings. Just to give you an idea, I have four cousins all of which are more than 10 years older or younger than me, so we never really hung out and could relate to each other. Mike has eight cousins all around his age. Okay, so back to the point of this post, no I did not end up marrying into a "mochi-pounding" family, but Mike's mom's friend hosts a mochi pounding event every year and this was the second year that Mike and I joined in the festivities.

Mochi rice is soaked overnight and then drained.

Here's the steamer used to steam the mochi rice.

Mochi Equipment.

I'm going to call this piece of equipment a "mochi extruder." The hot sticky mass of glutinous rice is placed in this container and extrudes out and is cut into uniform pieces.
The mochi assemblers all line up on both sides of a table and piece of the warm mochi are passed down the table. People flatten the piece of mochi in their palms and then quickly insert a ball of filling into the mochi. The mochi is then sealed over the filling.

Look at that. They have the system down. This is a pan of prescooped azuki bean filling.

The mochi is then cooled and then someone marks the mochi with colored dots to represent the different fillings. Red-azuki bean filling; Blue-Sweet Potato; Purple(?)-azuki bean and strawberry; Yellow-yellow sweet potato and coconut (I think).

Hawaii Restaurants~En Fuego

2011-03-12T09:14:00.002-06:00

Our winter trip back to Hawaii was only a week and a half long, yet we managed to eat out so many times! Mike and I actually made a schedule (which we conveniently managed to leave back in Texas) so that we could hang out with our family and friends.
One night during our trip home we checked out En Fuego in Kapolei. One of my friends lives on the far west side of the island, so Mike and I decided to meet up with her and her husband in Kapolei.

Mike ordered a combination bento with garlic chicken and teri beef. The garlic chicken was very flavorful and according to my friend, a lot of people on yelp.com recommended the garlic chicken.

Hawaiian plate with kalua pig, laulau, mac salad, haupia, and lomi salmon.

Mahimahi and garlic chicken combination plate.

I ordered the ahi tuna salad. I was trying to order a healthy meal, but was disappointed with my dish. Mike and I both thought that there was a funky sour taste to my ahi tofu patty. Next time I go back, I'll stick with the garlic chicken.

The staff at En Fuego was extremely nice and accommodating. I think Mike and I would eat at En Fuego again. The food was reasonably priced and tasty. But with our limited trips back home to Hawaii, we probably would not add En Fuego to our short list of restaurants we would return too.

En Fuego Grill

590 Farrington Highway
Building C-1, Suite # 534
Kapolei, HI 96707
(808) 674-8805

Hawaii Restaurants~Hiroshi Euroasian Tapas

2011-03-06T17:05:00.001-06:00

One of my good friends just got married earlier this year and I was unable to fly back to Hawaii for his wedding. We decided to meet up for dinner at Hiroshi's one night while I was back on vacation. the last time I ate at Hiroshi's was back in 2005. I remember really enjoying the meal and was impressed with Hiroshi's version of "peas and carrots" which was really a mixture of perfectly cut cubes of carrots and edamame.

We were served these rice cakes with a wasabi dip, while we were waiting for our entrees. They reminded me of lightly fried puff rice. The pictures are a little dark because I did not want to disturb other dinners with the flash from my point and shoot camera.

My friend ordered the crispy skin moi served with Mrs.Cheng's tofu, fennel, edamame, corn, tomatoes, and hijiki in a broth.

I ordered the panko-crusted swordfish served with roasted shitake mushrooms, zuchinni, and thai basil in a roasted garlic soy butter sauce. I'm not sure if my taste buds have been altered since I work on some low sodium projects, but I felt that both our dishes were a bit on the salty side. The flavors were great, but I kept reaching for my glass of water.

We ended our meal by sharing the bananas foster dessert. It was served with two chocolate lollipops and a vanilla dip. Yum!

Hiroshi's
500 Ala Moana Bld.
Honolulu, HI
(808)533-4476

Hawaii Restaurants~The Honolulu Burger Company

2011-02-23T06:02:00.032-06:00

Last Fall, I purchased a groupon coupon for the Honolulu Burger Company and paid $5 for a $10 certificate. I had read an article in the StarAdvertiser.com about this burger place and wanted to check it out while Mike and I were back home for the winter holidays. It's a locally-owned restaurant that serves Big Island range fed beef.

Apparently a lot of people happened to be redeeming their groupon coupons at the same time, because the customer before us and a few customers behind us had coupons in their hand.

I apologize for the blurry image, this was the best picture I took of the burger. Mike and I were in a rush to get somewhere, that I had to take a picture of the burger in the car. We just ordered the classic XL burger ($6.89) with lettuce, tomatoes, sauteed onions, and your choice of dressings. There is a large array of cheeses, toppings (kim chee, bacon, spam, etc) and sauces (ko choo jang aioli, BBQ, horseradish cream, and others) that you can add to your burger, but I just settled for the addition of a sweet chili aioli.
We both thought that the burger was tasty, except it was lacking a little flavor. If there had been more sweet chili aioli or if we had chosen another sauce, I'm certain that we would have enjoyed the burger more. Our sweet potato fries that we ordered came with the Big Island Honey Mustard, so we poured some of that mustard on our burger and it was wonderful!

Mike and I really enjoyed these sweet potato fries served with the Big Island Honey Mustard Sauce. Sweet potato fries are usually a hit or miss at restaurants. They are either over-fried and too crispy to taste the sweetness of the sweet potato. Then there are those sweet potato fries that are undercooked and you are chomping down on almost raw potato pieces. These sweet potato fries did not fall into the two previously mentioned categories. They were perfectly fried, they were cut large enough to taste the sweet potato, but not an under-cooked piece of raw potato.

Here's Mike's analysis of the fries-"They were good, I liked the extra seasoning on the fries and the honey mustard sauce that were served with the fries."

Honolulu Burger Company
1295 S. Beretania Street
Honolulu, Hawaii 96814
(808) 626-5202

Hawaii Restaurants~Angelo Pietro's

2011-02-20T16:17:00.000-06:00

Pietro's Restaurant is one my sister's favorite restaurants. It's an Italian-Japanese fusion restaurant that serves pasta and pizza dishes with an Asian flair.
While we were growing up, this would be her restaurant choice to celebrate special occasions. I really enjoyed Pietro's when my family first started frequenting this restaurant back in the days when it was located across of McKinley High School. The chefs would experiment with appetizers and we would always receive small portions of the concoction of the day. Flash forward several years to Pietro's, now located on Kapiolani Blvd close to the Ala Moana Shopping Center. The prices have increased, smaller portions, and there are no free appetizers (and this was prior to the recession).
Anyways, liked I mentioned, this is one of my sister's favorite restaurants in Hawaii. She makes it a point to eat here at least once each time she visits Hawaii.

Okay, so I do not hate Pietro's I just think that it's a bit over-priced and I like other restaurants more. One could argue that California Pizza Kitchen is over-priced, but I like that restaurant and no one is going to change my mind.
One of my favorite things about Pietro's are their dressings. They have four different Asian-inspired dressings that are yummy! You can buy these at local stores such as Long's and Don Quixote. My family cuts up cabbage really fine and we top it with the sesame miso dressing (our favorite flavor).

Here's the raw potato salad. Sounds a little gross, but it's really good. Raw potato is thinly sliced and is served with all the four dressings.

My standard order-I always order the same thing. Mushroom and Spinach spaghetti with a shoyu-based sauce. At Pietro's you have a choice of a cream, tomato, garlic and oil, or shoyu sauce.

Eggplant and Spicy Ground Beef-My dad's standard order. Our family pretty much sticks with what we know works. I don't think he's changed his pasta order in the past 10 years.

Natto Spaghetti-This is my sister's standard order. Yes, she likes natto too.

Here's an order of a chicken, mushroom, and broccoli pasta with cream sauce. The cream sauce at Pietro's is a light cream sauce, so it's quite different from a really creamy alfredo.

My sister would hands down recommend this restaurant to people. I think Pietro's serves tasty food, I just do not enjoy it as much as my sister.

Angelo Pietro Honolulu
1585 Kapiolani Blvd. Suite 110
Honolulu, HI. 96814
Ph: 808-941-0555

Lambsy

2011-02-15T18:37:00.005-06:00

Meet Lambsy! I told my mom how I mistakenly threw away the stuffed lamb that she bought me a few years ago. This past weekend my mom sent me a package full of snacks and goodies and a new stuffed lamb that I have decided to call Lamb-sy. She's a little bit bigger than Lamby, but is soft and has a similar face.

Poke Bowls

2011-02-13T06:30:00.000-06:00

One of the foods that Mike misses the most is raw fish. Be in sashimi, sushi, and poke. I'm sure that there are a lot of restaurants in Texas that serve high quality raw fish, but Mike and I have not tested those waters yet. Therefore, during our short vacation back home to Hawaii, we ate tons of raw fish. Wait, for those of you who know me, let me rephrase that last sentence, "Mike ate a lot of raw fish."

Paina Cafe's poke bowl. Mike ordered a bowl with half shoyu poke and half spicy tuna. We opted to add a taegu topping to the bowl. My parents really like the additional taegu.

Mike's friend ordered the "Hawaiian Poke Bowl" which includes kalua pig, lomi salmon and your choice of poke. At $7.25 for this bowl, I'd say it is a good deal!

Poke from Foodland.

Spicy tuna from Foodland

Tako (Octopus) Poke from Foodland

I read about Ono Seafood on another blog and wanted to check it out. You can choose between shoyu poke, spicy tuna poke, tako poke, or any combination of the three pokes. The poke bowl is reasonably priced at $6 and that includes a can of juice/soda or a bottle of water

I ordered the spicy tuna bowl. . This spicy tuna was composed of raw fish, onions, green onions, and tabiko (flying fish eggs). I liked the addition of the crunchy fish eggs, but I was not a fan of all the raw onions in my spicy tuna. It was more of a gourmet type spicy tuna rather than the traditional conveyor belt sushi bar spicy tuna.

Paina Cafe

Ward Warehouse
1200 Ala Moana Blvd
#24
Honolulu, HI 96814
(808)356-2829
Ono Seafood
747 Kapahulu Ave Apt 4
Honolulu, HI 96816
(808) 732-4806

Hawaii Restaurants~Morimoto's

2011-02-09T06:11:00.000-06:00

One of my friends suggested that for this year, instead of exchanging Christmas presents, we double date and enjoy a dinner at the newly opened Morimoto restaurant in Waikiki. I hadn't been keeping up with the Hawaii food scene and was excited to try out this new restaurant. I was even more excited when she texted me that Morimoto would actually be at the restaurant on the night she had made reservations.

My friend heard that Morimoto's was supposed to have outstanding ikura. She was telling me that Morimoto has this long process of cleaning the roe, soaking it in sake, and then the final result is non-fishy tasting ikura. Mike and I gasped a little when we heard that ONE piece of ikura (salmon roe) sushi was $5. You can see the single piece of ikua sushi in the far back of this picture.
We also ordered the soft shell crab roll and the spicy tuna roll.

Morimoto Smoked Sushi-Seared toro, salmon, eel, tuna, hamachi and five sauces. Isn't that pretty? I'm still learning how to eat raw fish, so the highlight of this dish for me was the five sauces in playful eye dropper like tubes. There was a yuzu sauce, shoyu, hot sauce, an aioli (?), and a green one that was not wasabi. I think it was cilantro.

Ishi Yaki Buri Bop-A Japanese play on the Korean stone pot bi bim bap. The hot stone bowl arrives at the table with rice and slices of raw yellowtail tuna. The waiter then places the fish on the sides of the bowl and slightly sears the fish. A shoyu based sauce is poured over it.

Chirashi Sushi-Assorted sashi over sushi rice.

Chef's Combination Sushi-Mike ordered this. His sushi included a spicy tuna and an assortment of nigiri sushi. He said that the quality of the fish was close if not the same as Sushi Sasabune.

Chocolate Peanut Bombe (I seem to have misplaced that picture). My friend's husband tried this and I think his clean plate meant that that dessert was delicious. This is a picture of the Sansho Pepper Roasted Pineapple. The waiter described this as a play on pineapple upside down cake. It was served with a buckwheat castella cake and toasted rice ice cream. I really enjoyed the ice cream, the pineapple cake had too much of a burnt bitter note for me.

Tofu Hot and Cold-Cheesecake, Souffle, and sour cherry sorbet. I ordred this dessert because it sounded playful and I wanted to see how it would be executed. I was underwhelmed with this bland dessert, but the waiter had warned me that it was not one of the favorites. The cheesecake and the souffle both had great textures, but how much can you really flavor a tofyu dessert? The best component on the plate was the contrasting flavorful cherries and sorbet.

Really, this is just a picture of Chef Morimoto's back. We were at the restaurant for over two hours and he only left the kitchen to serve this one table near the kitchen. Boo. Last year, Chef Morimoto was actually at my work place for a demonstration and book signing, but I was off for work travel and missed it.

Morimoto's
1775 Ala Moana Bld.
Honolulu, HI 96815
(808)943-5900

Hawaii Restaurants~Kurukuru Sushi

2011-02-07T18:47:00.000-06:00

I'm back...with my better than 20/20 vision right eye and my 20/30 vision left eye (it is supposed to improve to 20/20 over the next few weeks as my eye heals). Now I can start posting about all the food that we ate while back home in Hawaii over the winter holidays.
The first restaurant that I am highlighting is Kurukuru Sushi in the Pearl Kai Shopping Center. We've concluded that this is our favorite cheap conveyor belt sushi restaurant on Oahu. This place is always crowded, so we know that other people think the restaurant is good too! We got to the restaurant about 10 minutes before it opened for lunch, so that's why this is a picture of an empty restaurant.

Why do we enjoy Kurukuru so much? It's cheap for decent quality fish and the restaurant does not skimp on the fish and toppings. While we were driving home, we passed by a Genki Sushi and noticed that the parking lot and restaurant was not very crowded. Hmmm....maybe people are starting to realize that kurukuru has the better deal.

Poke Bowl with half shoyu poke and half spicy tuna. I think this bowl is $7.95 or $8.95 and is topped with poke and a slice of raw tuna and salmon. For the amount of fish in this bowl, I think it might be a better deal than ordering plates of nigiri sushi. Oh and on this visit to Kurukuru, we found out that if you're ordering a half-half bowl, you can request to have more shoyu poke or more spicy tuna. We ordered more spicy tuna and a guy a few tables down requested more shoyu poke.

Karaage Chicken

My favorite sushi, the natto (fermented soybean) sushi. Mmmm.....they put so much natto on the sushi that I knock some of it off and eat with some of the rice from the poke bowl.
Kurukuru Sushi
98-199 Kamehameha Hwy
Aiea, HI 96701
(808) 484-4596

Update~Farewell Lamby

2011-01-31T14:19:00.030-06:00

Currently nursing one of my eyes. Had corrective surgery done on my eyes last Friday, so I have been limiting my computer use. I was able to get LASIK done on one eye, but had to have the PRK procedure done on my left eye. My left eye will take a little bit more time to heal, so until then I will not be blogging.

Here's a story for you...
I was drugged up on sleeping pills and pain killers and was going through a lot of kleenex. I like soft things (sweaters, blankets, stuffed animals) and was hugging on to my stuffed lamb while sleeping. Well, somehow my stuffed lamb fell off my bed and into the trash can. My trash can was overflowing and without thinking I emptied it out. Mike wonders why I took the time to empty my trash can while drugged up. I made him baby me all weekend, yet I decided that I was capable of emptying the trash. I think Lamby's white fur blended in with the kleenex and now I cannot find him anywhere in my bedroom.

Bye bye Lamby. It's been a good 3-4 years. Mike looked up this Ty beanine baby (his real name is "Bashfully") and he is retired and now costs $35-58! I told Mike that a new one will not replace my old Lamby. Poor poor Lamby.

Camden Market

2011-01-22T17:08:00.001-06:00

Whew! This is the last post from Mike and my trip to London and Paris. One of the places that we checked out in London was the Camden Market. Camden Market is a market filled with shops, food stalls, and music.

There are multiple sections of the Camden Market that are filled with food stalls. There was Chinese, Mexican, Thai, Morrocan, Indian, and other types of cuisines. After a while all the food stalls started blending together and I started tuning out all the cries of, "You want to sample chicken?"

Anyhoo, Mike was hungry, so we randomly selected one of the Chinese food booths and ordered a Chinese plate. I felt bad about eating Chinese food in London, but we were immersing ourselves in the culture of Camden Market.

Bath, UK ~The Roman Baths, and The Pump Room

2011-01-20T18:14:00.002-06:00

My dad mentioned that a friend of his loved English teas in the UK. Since our trip to London and the UK was a short three days, we had a difficult time squeezing in an afternoon tea. Luckily, while visiting the Roman Baths in Bath, UK on a tour, Mike and I decided to stop by the Pump Room for a quick afternoon tea.

Sugar Cubes. Every time I see sugar cubes I think back to a book I read about horses and how this little boy used to sneak his horse some sugar cubes.

I ordered the Traditional Pump Room Tea.

My assortment of pastries, scones, and finger sandwiches!

Mike was really hungry and did not want to eat finger sandwiches and scones, so he ordered a ham sandwich and potato wedges.

A love ketchup. We had to ask for ketchup during our tea service. It was brought to us in a little bowl.

The Pump Room Restaurant

The Roman Baths, Stall Street, Bath

BA1 1LZ

London~Fish and Chips

2011-01-18T17:24:00.000-06:00

Whew! That was a quick view of our food experiences in Paris in a nutshell. Moving on to the less exciting London food experiences.

Mike was adamant that we had to eat fish and chips at a pub and drink some kind of local beer. Here's his beer.

The customary Fish and Chips with mushy peas with mint.

Here's the dish I ordered...and then quickly gave to Mike.It's called "Welsh Rarebit" and is supposed to be composed of toast covered in mixture of butter, cream, and cheese. Well it was covered in all that goodness, except I was not expecting the strong Dijon Mustard almost horseradish taste to come with it.
Mike was surprised I would order it because, your natural instinct is to think that this is some kind of rabbit (the words look almost like "welsh rabbit"). Come on, it's basically cheese toast. Plus I saw it in a cookbook and wanted to try an authentic version of it before I attempted it at home.

Paris Cooking/Food Stores~G.Detou

2011-01-17T18:33:00.000-06:00

Another tip from David Lebovitz's website was to visit the G. Detou store, which contains many baking and cooking needs. This store was filled with all kinds of baking ingredients such as flavorings, candies, chocolates, and pastes.

Yes, to Mike's bafflement I purchased 3kg (yup, 6.6 pounds) of Valrhona cocoa. I have not opened the cocoa yet, but I plan on using it to make rich chocolate desserts.

Here's a picture of a kitchenware store close to G. Detou.

G . Detou-Baking Item Store and mustard. Edmond Dallot, Amora
58 rue Tiquetonne (2nd)
Tél: 01 42 36 54 67

French McDonald's~French Macarons

2011-01-17T05:11:00.019-06:00

While we were walking down Champs-Elysees, I saw this sign in McDonald's, and decided to make a pit stop. McDonald's offers six different flavors of macarons-chocolate, pistachio, strawberry, vanilla, caramel, and lemon (I think).

I tried a chocolate macaron at McDonald's. I am assuming that macarons produced for McDonald's in France must be mass produced. I thought that these macarons were similar to the macarons that I had tasted in the USA. They were not as light in texture or as rich in flavor as Pierre Herme's or Laduree's macarons. This macaron had a slight stale heavy texture.

Pistachio Frappe. These frappes were light and airy and nothing like the frappes that are currently sold at McDonald's. Mike did not care for the pieces of pistachio in this drink.

The assortment of pastries and macarons sold at McDonald's.