Pan Roasted Clams - Delish!

Made this for dinner last Wednesday for C and I as a predinner to the Japansese curry we were also cooking. The recipe is from David Chang's Momofuku cookbook for Pan Roasted Bouchot Mussels with OS but since I'm too scared to cook with mussels (ever since Tony Bourdain said he does not eat them in restaurants because of the unknown of how they are stored and held), I substituted clams. C loved them and said they were really good.

Now that I have more free time with school being done (did I mention I was taking grad classes--I got a 4.0 this semester) and it is lonely cooking for one, I have been trying to cook Sunday night dinners for some of my friends. This past Sunday, I made my own duck ravioli and then 12 pounds of clams. We ate almost all of them, but saved a few for my roommate who was at work at the time.

I forgot to take a picture of the homemade ravioli because I was busy cooking everything else. I did not love them, but my dinner guest said they were good. I served it with a demi-glace sauce. I also saved a lot of the duck fat to be used another time. Mmm..

Just Another Sunday

Everything is fabulous these days. I've been really happy and satisfied with 2011 so far. I just can't believe it is almost the end of April already!

J and N visited for the weekend. It was great and fun to catch up, not to mention all the laughing (even if it is at my expense...). I ended the relaxing weekend with baking all Sunday afternoon and having my usual Sunday night dinner at R&C's.

Blueberry Mochi Cake before going in the oven.

Result: Delicious. I love the texture of mochi and this was not too sweet. For the recipe, click here.

Chai-Spiced Crumb Coffee Cake. The crumb is my favorite part of coffee cake. I had about 3/4 of cup of crumb left. I should have sprinkled more in between the layers of the batter.

Because I did not think the chai spices were dominate enough. The cake was slightly dry for my taste as well. R said it was really good and he would pay money for it though. :) For recipe, click here.

Broken Glass Jello. Really easy to make. Super colorful.

And easy to share. The only hard part is waiting for the jello to set. I do not have much patience so waiting overnight for the final product was very difficult, but the results were well worth it. I don't normally like jello, but these were so fun and summery. For recipe, click here.

And I made mushroom and leek risotto for the Sunday dinner but I left in a hurry and forgot to take a photo. It was tasty though, just so you know. Happy Baking.

Obie Turned Two!

Obie turned two years old on May 7th. We decided to throw him a birthday party because earlier that week, there was a Groupon for Maribelle Cakery for $20 and I wanted to eat cake.

If you have not signed up with Groupon yet, please do so by clicking HERE. They will send you daily deals for the cities you choose. They have some really great things. To date, I have gotten 5 bottles of wine for $25, a car wash and wax for $14, $35 gift certificate to a local restaurant for $15, and the cake for $20. It's free to sign up and if you use the link above, I'll get a referral bonus, so thanks in advance!

Back to the party. It was actually really cute. We invited a few friends over and two of them brought their dogs. The adults got cake and ice cream and the dogs got lots of dog treats and doggy ice cream. Obie threw up about 30 minutes later, like a real kid who ate too much and got too excited

Our friends brought him lots of presents as well. After the cake and ice cream, we took the dogs to the dog park that is down the street. They played at the park for awhile, but it was so hot that there were not that many people there. Soba swam in the lake for a bit, but we left shortly after that because our friend's dog got stung by a bee.

I think the humans were more wore out from the party than the dogs because after the park, I promptly napped for about 4 hours. Happy Birthday lil guy!

What A Pretty Girl

My sister bobby pinned some pink bows to Soba's head the other week and it was so adorable. However, the bobby pins do not stay on very well because Soba has very short hair and it's very soft and silky.

We went to the mall last weekend and picked up cute little flower clips at Claire's. I was a total tomboy when I was younger, but I loved that store. We had to get two packs because each one came with two different colors (makes no sense at all). They make Soba so pretty.

She does not really like to wear them though and always shakes them off. Guess she doesn't understand the price of beauty.

.

But you can get them to stay on if you clip them while she is eating.

She now weighs in at hefty 36 lbs (31.1 lbs more than when we adopted her).

My Very Own Croquembouche

I went home this past weekend to run the Great Urban Race with N in downtown Phoenix and to celebrate Chinese Lunar New Years with my family. When I got home Sunday afternoon, I found this on the counter:

T had made me my very own croquembouche! A croquembouche is a french dessert piece that is a cone of cream puffs and then decorated with spun sugar, nuts, caramel, chocolate, and whatever else.

T's version was a complete tower (no holding structure in the middle- that's skill) of cream puffs filled with strawberry whipped cream, sugar cookies, and spun sugar. I was most impressed with the spun sugar because it not only looks really cool, it tastes really good. It was a nice treat and a surprise because T rarely ever makes desserts and when he bakes, its usually bread. But his cream puffs are delicious and of course, I could eat spun sugar all day long.

I hope everyone had a fantastic holiday weekend. It was a big one. Happy late Valentine's Day, Chinese Lunar New Year, and Arizona's Birthday!

Light Box

I finally made my light box! I have been talking about making one forever so I finally got around to it a few weekends ago. I googled "how to make my own light box" and followed the DIY instructions from the site Digital Photography School. You can find the directions by clicking here.

I went to Joann's Fabric and picked up four yards of the cheapest white fabric I could find and a .59 poster board from Walgreens. I took a large UHaul box I had laying around in the garage and carefully drew out even rectangles on four sides. The most tedious task was cutting out the holes, but other than that, I think it only took about an hour to get the whole thing put together.

The poster board was actually shorter than the size of my box, but I figured I only needed the bottom half to be covered, it should not matter too much.

I wanted to take a photo of something right after I got it up, but since I had not made anything, I thought these tomatoes will do. This only had one small lamp on it. The coloring is yellow and not pure white at all. Not good at all.

This has two small lamps on it, but it still does not look too good. I think I am going to buy a bigger and brighter lamp and continue to play around with it some more. Overall, I am really happy with it and excited to take some nicer food photos!

Obie Love

Just because we got a new dog this weekend, doesn't mean I forgot about my old puppy, Obs. I'm actually playing with Obie more so he doesn't get jealous. My sister and I took him to my parents for Thanksgiving. Here he is riding in my lap on the car ride to Phoenix.

And when my mom's parents came over for dinner, they wanted a photo with him too. He's a big hit with them!

New Baby

We adopted a new baby girl this weekend! T and I have been talking about getting a second dog in the past few months, but we were not actively looking except checking Craigslist every once in awhile when I was bored. We had no plans on Saturday and since Pima Animal Control Center is only a few miles from my house and we decided to take a look. I didn't have big hopes of taking a furry friend home, but I was hoping to see some lab babies.

PACC was having a discount so all dogs were only $25 to adopt with the neutering/spaying! No such luck on lab babies, but there were a litter of chow babies. We got a baby girl and named her Soba (I really love Japanese names for dogs).

She's getting along beautifully in our new home and crate training pretty well. Obie is learning to play with his baby sister. She's 4.5 lbs currently to Obie's 13 lbs, but she'll grow fast. Her paws are tiny for her size, so I'm thinking she'll be on the smaller side of a chow, maybe 45-50 lbs.

Obsessed...with Pumpkin Carving

I am not feeling very well today (or the past weekend). All we really did this weekend was carve pumpkins (oh and corn maze on Friday night). I was going to write a blurb about each one of the pumpkins and talk about the trial and tribulations, but I'm just too tired and uncomfortable to do so. So here they are (note- all mine have a signature star on them):
My first Monster. They called him Bug-a-boo (no reference to Destiny Child's song).

Second "Sneak Peek" pumpkin.

Third Executioner.

These ones are T's.

He did an extra Mummy last night too, but I didn't upload the photo from my camera yet. We did all 6 pumpkins on Saturday. It was exhausting on my cramped hands and neck, but it was a lot of fun!

Happy Halloween!

Still here

Hi! I know I have totally been slacking on the blogging front. I was sick all last week and have been a bit busier at work. And now I'm recovering from the weekend of partying and from being sick.

Quick update on food we ate this weekend though. I took N to Roka Akor (a Japanese restaurant/robata grill/shochu lounge) in Scottsdale for her birthday dinner. T and I have eaten there a few times now and its always been decent food. T, N, and I got the omakase, and there was a massive amount of food. Everything for the most part was tasty, but I was disappointed in the lack of fish we actually got. I honestly quit eating halfway through because I was so stuffed. We had so much stuff boxed up but we left in a hurry and thus, lost our midnight snack. I hope I can remember everything...
[image via Rokaakor.com]
For starters we had butterfish tataki with white asparagus (I get this everytime I've gone so far), beef tataki with a chili ponzu sauce, fried tofu with a avocado and wasabi sauce, ginger, and ponzu sauce, burnt tomato salad, and fried oysters with ponzu and shisho. T said he was ponzu-ed out by this point.

Next up, we had sushi: toro tuna roll (two kinds-one had a huge hunk of pickled radish inside), spanish mackarel sashimi (two kinds-both delicious), tuna and yellowtail sashimi, sea bream sashimi, and I think one more thing. I wish we had more sashimi though. Their fish is really good.

Following the fish, butternut squash tempura with a Japanese pepper broth, Yuzo marinated black cod, grilled wild madagascan tiger prawns (HUGE-size of my forearm basically, it was insane), grilled pork belly with marinated beets, cold soba noodles in broth with quail egg and green onions, baby pork ribs with sweet corn in butter and soy, grilled Shishito peppers with ponzu and bonito flakes. I feel like I am forgetting something, but even this list is quite large.

We were suppose to get lamb cutlets too, but the three of us were majorly stuffed so we just called for dessert (pictured below). The desserts change everyday and is always an assortment of sorbets, fresh fruit-like lychee and mangosteen, and other neat things (we got green tea custard with banana foam, some passion fruit thing, and a peanut butter sorbet on top of some cake I can't remember). For N's birthday, they brought out the sample platter (I guess that's what it is called) for free. The Yuzu sorbet was hands down the favorite from the three of us.

After rethinking about everything we ate, I feel like a fatty. For $98/person, it was seriously the most food I've ever gotten. There were some things I did not like, but overall, the food was yummy, the service is always really good (they gave us free sake and free dessert!), so I will most likely go back.

I apologize for the lack of creativity in writing this post. It's noon and I'm ready for lunch so I just wanted to let you all know I'm still alive and blogging! :)

I'm In Love with San Diego!

We got off the boat on Thursday in San Diego and checked into the Hotel Solamar in the Gaslamp Quarters. The hotel is nice and the room are a good size, but I would not recommend it. They had a rooftop pool/bar so that was nice, but the bar and security staff were really strict and rude about kicking us out when they closed at midnight! I had to bring my drink with me. Twice!

At any rate, on to the food! So Thursday, I really wanted ramen. I've been to Tajima a few years ago with some of my sorority sisters, so I wanted to go again. This time, I had the spicy ramen and it was delicious! It was the best thing I had since being on vacation. The broth had a good back kick to it and as you ate more, it had really good heat. The noodles were good too. Nothing worst than mushy ramen. Yum! I wish I could have some more now.

For dinner, we went to Kaito Sushi in Encinitas which was highly recommended on Yelp and by S (who I now consider a local and has good taste in food). The place was smaller than I expected but the perfect size for what it was. The sushi chef was chatty, there were a few other tables and he was the only one working so it was not as attentive. But that's okay, I was there for the fish!

We asked for the omakase or "it's up to you" so the chef just served us what he thought was the best. In order, we had halibut, shad (pictured above), kampachi, squid, bluefin tuna, giant washington clam, octopus, ono, saltwater eel, and uni. T had a toro tuna hand roll too, but I was too full. The fish was so delicious! All the reviewers and S were not joking about the high quality of the fish. You could taste how fresh everything was and the sweetness of each fish. I especially enjoyed the shad, kampachi, and uni which were my favorites of the night. The only thing I didn't like was the squid (pictured below). It had that gummy feel that I really hate (just like ebi) so it was hard to stomach for me. Overall though, I really liked the place. I love places that are full of delicious and great quality ingredients, but has a very unpretentious feel. The price was really reasonable too. About $60 per person I think.

The next day, we wanted to go kayaking and snokeling. The snorkel rental guy said we would be better off kayaking as there was not much to see that day. I love kayaking! We got to see seals and here them whine (or at least that is what it sounds like). They're so cute!

We had thai food for lunch at Kafe Yen because T went there years ago and remembered he really liked it. He had said that their mieng kham (leaf wrapped in toasted coconut, peanuts, ginger, lime, and shrimp) was one of the best bites he's ever had. I thought they were good, but nothing I'll probably remember or crave.

We did get Yogurtland after and I'm definitely craving that now though. It was so cheap and as T said, it had a great mouth feel. My sister tells me they've opened one in Tempe so maybe I'll go this weekend.

At night, we wanted oysters so we walked over to Oceanaire since we saw it earlier that afternoon while grabbing coffee by our hotel. Turns out, Brian Malarkey from Top Chef Season 3 Miami owns it and is actually at the restaurant. The oysters were very delicious and I wanted more. We also got escargot and an order of rock shrimp.

For entree I ordered the lobster encrusted halibut with English peas and sweet corn. That was tasty, except the lobster crust was over salted. The fish was cooked really well and the beurre blanc broth sauce with it was excellent. The corn really added a good sweetness to the dish. I opted out of dessert, because we still had half a bottle of wine left and I was really stuffed. But I always have room for oysters so we ordered more. They were out of the kind we had earlier so they comped us on the next half dozen which were not as good. And I ended on a bad oyster so bleh.

This is a terrible picture, but I told our waiter, Jorge, that I was a fan of Brian (well okay, I did root for Hung the whole season, but Brian was good looking!) and he told the chef who then came out. He was really nice and humble. Overall, the food was okay. I would give it a 7 out of 10. If you like seafood, big portions and reasonable prices, this is a good choice.

I'm absolutely in love with the city of San Diego. I love the ocean, I like the night life, the people, and of course, the food. Everytime I go, I forget how much I liked it. I wanted to go there for college but never applied since I didn't want to take the SAT II for UC's school. So perhaps in a few years, if I ever figure out what I want to do with my life, I can work it out that San Diego is a part of it. Until then, I'm ready to take another weekend trip out there soon!

Carnival Elation

So I'm back! T and I left for San Diego last Sunday to jump onto the Carnival Elation ship to cruise to the Catalina Islands. We were suppose to make a stop in Ensenada, Mexico, but due to the swine flu, the port was closed.

The cruise was fun. It was nice just relaxing on the decks and not have to worry about where to go or what to do since options were limited. The ship (pictured above) was really big. The food however, was terrible. I know most people say when they go on cruises they eat so much and they eat all the time. This was not the case for us. We ate two meals a day, and only so we could sustain ourselves.

Every night after dinner, we would grab a drink and play the life sized chessboard. And for four nights in a row, I would get mad at T for not letting me win. Every night also, we would have lots to drink. I'm not much of a drinker, but I definitely had my far share on the ship. It was fun though because I didn't have to worry about getting a ride home or walking too far.

So even though the cruise food was not good, I would love to go on a cruise again! I would like to go with more people though so we could party/relax all together. I was getting cabin fever by the last day because we had two full days at sea and I was getting a little bored. Next stop, San Diego!

Cankles and It's Not Pretty

I went to S' graduation party on Saturday evening and it was outdoors. I got bit by mosquitoes 32 times on my left leg and 12 times on my right. My right leg from the knee down is two times its size and I have CANKLES on both my right and left legs!!! It's so bad in terms of looks and comfort. I'm so itchy! And my legs are soooooo ugly. I'm so sad.

My mom has been giving me stuff (ancient Chinese secret) to help bring down the swollen bites. Even she was shocked by how swollen everything got. I'm just hoping everything will be back to normal by this weekend.

Busy Weekend

What a weekend! I drove down to Tucson on Friday to go to my sorority's formal which my real sister had planned. Right after, I got to hang out with one of my bffs, N, and met her ex-boyfriend, which was interesting. A bunch of our other friends came out too, so it was pretty fun. And I never drink anymore so it was an added bonus. I went to bed around 5am but woke up at 6:30am and could not fall back asleep. So I called a cab and had him take me back to my car in downtown Tucson.

While on my way back to the house after getting my car, I was driving behind one of those semi's towing a semi. I kept expecting a man to pop up in the driver seat. Maybe it was because I was only half awake or something, but it was really creepy.

Got back to the house and it was only 7:30am. I was so bored. Watched Clueless and the end of She's All That on TV. N wakes up and chats with me for a few minutes but then falls back asleep in the span of 15 minutes I think. I finally fall back asleep around 10:30 am.

Woke up around 2pm. Sad I wasted all morning/afternoon. T and I had 5pm Stomp tickets so I finally dragged myself into the shower. Stomp was really good. I would never be able to do something like that; remember all the numbers, make that kind of music. During the part where they have audience participation, I didn't even want to clap because I always have a hard time keeping beat. I have no rhythm whatsoever. Sad, I know.

After the show we went to get sushi, but after ordering everything, I realized I was not hungry so really I guess we just wasted food instead. We had to go to Home Depot to get new fertilizer for the garden. T said the kind we had was crap. By Home Depot, there is the El Con theater so we decided to drive by just to see if there was a lot of people in line.

I really wanted to see X-Men Origins: Wolverine. Luckily, there was no line, which was a surprise. And no one sat next to me (I really hate sitting next to strangers in the movie. It makes me uncomfortable). I really liked the movie. The effects were cool. I was totally engaged in the movie the whole time. Ryan Reynolds was so cute, and of course, Hugh Jackman was really hot.

Finally went home, I was pretty tired. Woke up early on Sunday to drive back to Phoenix to help my mom out at the restaurant. It was a strange day. There were a lot of weird people wanting Chinese food apparently. I even had to yell at this kid:

I never yell at people and especially not kids, but something happened with this little boy. He was crying and yelling at his sisters. And then started banging on the table. Everyone was looking around and quite honestly, I was just embarrassed for him and scared he was going to break stuff. So I finally walked up to him and scolded him. Then walked back to my spot so I could take a picture with my phone, passing it off like I was just texting or something. His sisters apologized for him and then they left.

I went home after working and passed out 30 minutes later. It was a short weekend, but overall, it was fun. I'm going back to Tucson this weekend (even though I rather stay in town) because my pledge mom is coming to visit from NY. I can't wait to see her!

Our Garden

T and I got to work on our garden this weekend. We're putting it in the Tucson house since that's where he currently lives. We went to Lowes to buy our supplies and well, there's not much to say about it yet because we didn't do any of the actual planting yet, just built the box.

We bought 64 feet worth of wood that we had cut. After taking it home, we treated the pieces with a water seal waterproofer. After it dried, we nailed the pieces of the wood together with brackets and laid the bottom with this landscaping fabric (to avoid weeds). Since we did not have a staple gun, we thumb tacked it into the wood which seems to work just as well.


All in all it was a great project and I'm glad we did it together. I was a bit of a whiner because I'm not much for manual labor, but I am a bit of a perfectionist so I was irked that the pieces were not straight. But T just kept saying "We're not making it for NASA."

So voila! We have a 24 feet by 4 feet garden box that is about 8 inches deep. We're going to need quite a bit of soil. More to come as we get moving on it.

Weekend Update 3/20-22/09

I will do my weekend updates, only if I find that weekend to be particularly interesting.



Friday, T and I saw "Knowing." I was pretty much pissed off at him during most of the movie because I was scared and was fearful of the nightmares that I would be having later that night. However, once the ending came about, all my fears faded away because of how ridiculous it was. The movie was pretty good though minus the terrible ending, but I rather have watched "I Love You, Man."

Saturday, we were going to go the Spring training game. Not realizing that since it was the biggest rivalry of the Chicago teams, we should have purchased our tickets in advance. So sold out tickets and nothing to do on a Saturday, we decided to drive up to Camp Verde to catch up with his family. I have never been to Camp Verde before, but he assured me it would be lots of fun. As we pulled into this little rural town, I started getting nervous, as I usually do with any small white folks town. Being Chinese and sticking out like a giant 5'9" thumb, I have endured a few racial situations before. T said I was being ridiculous and well, I probably was since it was 2009 and there are many Asian/Chinese people all over the place.

T, being the professionally trained cook, got suckered into manning the grill. While he was doing that, I was being helpful and cleaning some dishes. This older lady walked up to me at the sink and asked, "Honey, are you the dishwasher for the night?" She wasn't rude about it, just a bit racist, but since I'm too polite, I casually answered no and ran away to find T to say "Hah!"

Overall though, Camp Verde was fun. I love T's family and the friends of T's mom were really nice, welcoming, and best of all, hilarious.

Sunday was uneventful. I worked at my parents' restaurant, read a book, ate too much, went to bed. And here we are Monday.