Posts Tagged 'good food'

Chinese New Year Celebration @ Blue House

This year we made Chinese New Year dinner at the blue house again, but with a much more intimate party. With 7 peeps and Emil, we had Fat Choi Ho Si (traditional Chinese New Year dish that wishes for getting rich and good things happening), chicken and veggie stir fry noodles, year cake (traditional Chinese New Year dish that wishes for growing taller/ achieving more every year), Susan bought cha siu and siu yuk and OP made egg tarts for dessert.

Dinner was delicious and we had a great time chatting away about relationships. Susan and Peter also got to meet Emil for the first time.

Hula & Emil

Hula & Emil

It wasn’t easy to get a group picture where most people look fairly normal. At least this one it looks like Ani is very, very happy.

The Dinner Party

The Dinner Party

It was a good evening of celebration. I still miss celebrating new year in Hong Kong though. One of these years I’d make the trip…

Happy Chinese New Year!

May the year of the rabbit be a prosperous and joyous one

Macaroni & Cheese Challenge

Ever since I was introduced to Mac & Cheese during my freshmen year in college, I have been obsessed. To me, mac & cheese has always came in a box. Initially it came in a plastic bowl where you just add hot water.

My friends gave me a Costco size 15-box Kraft mac & cheese housewarming gift just over a year ago when I moved into my new apartment. It was definitely a step up as stove-top cooking and milk and butter are required.

One of my birthday presents this year is a recipe book called “Now Eat This!: 150 of America’s Favorite Comfort Foods, All Under 350 Calories” which was purchased mainly because it contained a recipe for mac & cheese from scratch.

I gave the recipe a try as my contribution to our Thanksgiving dinner (butter and milk are replaced by an onion & garlic puree), but it came out real dry and doesn’t taste much of (if at all like) Mac & Cheese. I was very disappointed :(

Meanwhile, I have been following the blog of Ree Drummond, The Pioneer Woman for a while. I came across her cookbook, The Pioneer Woman Cooks at Barnes & Nobles and found that she had a recipe for mac & cheese (“hmmm country recipe for M&C, how could it go wrong?” :D ). So I came back to her website and searched for the recipe online (I decided I won’t get a new cookbook until I have gone through the 2 that I got for my birthday).

I think I’m going to give these two a try some time:

Basic: http://thepioneerwoman.com/cooking/2009/04/macaroni-cheese/

With Panko: http://thepioneerwoman.com/tasty-kitchen-blog/2010/08/a-tasty-recipe-mac-and-cheese-and-panko/

hmmmmm mac & cheese

Beecher’s also have totally awesome mac & cheese (just thinking of it makes me want to walk over to Pike Place Market for a bite, at 3 pm)

http://www.beechershandmadecheese.com/shop_frozensides_macncheese.html

Ice Cream Pie Recipe Trial

Saw this recipe for ice cream pie a couple days back in Ice Cream Pie? Um, Yes Please! . After receiving approval from friends, I decided to give it a try last night, for desert at a BBQ tonight. I don’t have most of the stuff that the recipe asks for, so I ended up buying a bunch of new ingredients (and therefore, having a bunch of stuff that I don’t usually use, for better or worse).

Per the recipe, you’ll need:

  • 3 Tablespoon Butter
  • 2 Tablespoon Brown Sugar
  • 1/4 cup + 6 Tablespoon Karo syrup
  • 2 1/2 cup Rice Krispies
  • 1/2 cup Peanut Butter
  • 1/2 cup Ice Cream Fudge Topping
  • 6 Tablespoon Karo Syrup
  • 1 Quart of Ice Cream

*except for brown sugar, I needed to buy everything else.

  • I use butter only when I bake (oatmeal raisin) cookies
  • I’ve never used corn syrup, and have no idea how I’m gonna finish the rest of the bottle unless I repeat this recipe
  • I don’t usually eat rice krispies (or any other cereals, for that matter)
  • I don’t usually eat peanut butter (esp not the creamy ones for bread spread); boyfriend doesn’t approve the recipe due to the presence of this ingredient…
  • I never use ice cream fudge topping, whether I’m home or outside…

Leah also suggested use of a 9 inch round cake pan. I used my 8×8 square pan and it worked too, and ended up piling on 1.5 quart of ice cream to fill the pan (figures the more the merrier) :p

I’m not a whiz in the kitchen, so this turned out to be surprisingly easy and fool-proof. We’ll see tonight if it gets the nod from the BBQ party.

————Trial Verdict—————
Friends enjoyed it (although the pieces were cut a bit too big, so they probably all got a sugar rush). I personally didn’t like the gooey crust too much, and the peanut butter/ chocolate fudge was a bit too thick, so the dollop just slide right off the top of the ice cream *whooop*. Next time I’ll try another recipe with graham crust (like this one) which should be less gooey. Probably just use the fudge alone instead of mixing it with something else… I don’t know what it’d take, but I’d rather the topping drizzles. And perhaps something less sugar intensive.
——————————————-

Meanwhile, since I have all these rice krispies left and no prospect of eating it like cereal, I’m considering making the “Original Treats” . Very tempting bad goodness…

But now I’d have to buy marshmallows…which I don’t usually eat.

Had a Good Weekend

Hung out over at the Blue House on Friday night with Susan, Hula and Nanna. We had sprite can chicken and burgers on the BBQ. Susan and I also joined forces in playing the Ravman Raving Rabbids game on Wii which was totally hilarious. I’m awesome at the song/ rhythm games where Susan almost conquered the wild hog-riding game, in which we eventually got stuck and decided to call it a night.

On Saturday I had a small group over for housewarming. Hula/ Nanna/ OP/ Adriana gave me a pot of flowers (called lavender…nightingale) which is really pretty and a real plant that I haven’t had for a really long time. They also got me my favorite instant Mac & Cheese in Costco size, something that Ani has pulled me away from every time we visited Costco lol. It would be an awesome backup food, in case we got stuck in the apartment for a period of time. Shameek brought over awesome sake which a few of us enjoyed along with games of Jenga. We started with the conservative ‘remove sides only’ rule, and proceed on with several players removing blocks at a time and eventually went nutso over the game. It was good fun.

After the housewarming party, we went to Randy’s birthday party for a girl named Valerie. The party turned out to be better than I was expecting. Guess it’s the good music and the fact that I haven’t been out for a while that made it more enjoyable.

Sunday afternoon we went to OP’s for Easter brunch which was totally yum. She made poached egg/ egg Benedict and Ham and spinach with English muffin and I brought over Zucchinis as well. Checked out her new flat screen HDTV and hung out with Rex after haven’t seen him for a couple of weeks.

Also caught up on sleep over the weekend after not sleeping so well in the new apartment for 5 days. Was very nice.

Looking forward to his return in a few days.

Drunken Sausage and Pasta Recipe Trial

I have been following The Crepes of Wrath ever since my discovery of the wonderful Snickerdoodle Blondies.

Last night we tried out the drunken sausage and pasta recipe and I got pretty good feedback :) The audience very much liked the idea of sausage and beer lol. The recipe was really simple, quick and yum. I have also thrown in a can of mushroom pieces.

Of course, I ran into a little portioning issue again… (like the time I attempted to make a big Chinese New Year dinner). He joined the party at the last minute so we had 6 instead of 5. I got a pack of 5 sausages (which I decided it’s easier to deal with when chopped up). and we used the full pack of spaghetti (10 servings). Plenty of pasta left, not enough toppings. Can never go wrong with too much toppings…

Next time I should just double all the ingredients (instead of just the pasta). haha.

Weekend and Furniture

Chilled on Saturday, went for some Costco shopping (bought a boat-load of dried mangoes), followed up with Asian groceries. Awesome to realize that they are so close to each other. We have to start planning our grocery shopping every fortnight.

It’s was snowing the whole weekend and we were hoping that we could make it to Snoqualmie (closest and relatively safest) for some skiing on Sunday. However, when we were leaving Seattle around 8:30 am, it was snowing even within the city limit. We could tell that the visibility in the mountains would be no good for driving or skiing, so we gave up :( :(

Turned around and decided to pay the French bakery on Eastlake a visit. I’ve heard Susan talk about it and finally had a chance to try their infamous croissant. It was really tasty, with crispy crust on the outside and cheese, ham and egg on the inside (think he got the breakfast combo, I just stole a couple of bites hehe). It was a nice and quiet early Sunday morning, and we were inside with warm coffee in hand, watching it snow on the Seattle streets.

As I’m moving in less than 2 weeks, I’m working hard at finding some furniture to help make my 1 bedroom apartment more comfortable and homey. Since we didn’t have anything else planned for Sunday, I convinced him to go window shopping at IKEA with me. He ended up buying a few closet organizer (FINALLY! AWESOME!) and kitchenware (I get to try out his wok before deciding on owning one yay. It’s pretty good so far $10). I realized they no longer sell the 5-color tea light candle holders that I loved (they got ruined by melted candles) :( but I found some other nice looking ones.

So far I’ve settled a deal for 2 outdoor folding chairs + bowl that could be used for floating candles at $20. One of my friends have a spare round table which I would check out soon. Also looking at a couple of mattresses/ couches. Mostly have to figure out the logistics and pricing; we’ll see how that goes.

hopefully this would all pan out nicely.

Snickerdoodle Blondie Recipe Trial

The Crepes of Wrath is this blog that has a ton of wonderful and delicious looking posts with recipes and pictures. Last Friday we went to OP’s house for dinner before she takes off for Indonesia for 2 weeks. After drooling over the pictures of Snickerdoodle Blondies for a week, I, the person who hardly ever cooks let alone bake, decided to give it a try.

blondie2
Here’s how it should look like

p3070013
Here’s how it turned out. OP didn’t have a 9×13 pan so we used a deeper square pan instead. The cinnamon and sugar weren’t spread out nice and even like she had it. And I made a few rookie mistake of not poking it straight down, so there were quite a few holes. lol

Lucky I was the only one who has a camera. My inability to remember ingredient list left me tired going back and forth between cabinets and the recipe going ‘ok here’s the flour, what next?’. Nanna and OP also found lots of laughs when I attempted to use the kitchen-aid. arrrgh machines that spray flour all over my sleeves… Anyways, it turns out yum so I’m glad. Leftovers still tastes very good after half a minute of microwaving.

p3070014 p3070015
OP with her multi-layer baby shower cake and bake-sale cupcakes.

My Lunch Made Me Very Happy

Went to Cherry Street Coffee House to grab a quick bite. My fav at the coffee house has always been their special house salad (romaine, cucumbers, tomatoes, onions, feta cheese, most very importantly, sprouts and special house salad dressing with vinaigrette). Today I decided to be a bit ‘edgy’ and went off the chart to get Tuna sandwich with house salad. The Tuna salad was huge beyond my expectation. I thought it was going to be half salad and half sandwich, but it turned out to be a full sandwich with a side of salad. The carb made me very happy hehe :D Have half a sandwich left for tmr’s lunch.

Also noticed that they have a facebook group that may have lunch deals so I’ve swiftly jumped in. yeeeeesh.

In Response to Dooce…


Got the questions from Heather Armstrong @ dooce.com. Looks like a fun exercise. So here are my answers.

1. What are your middle names?

He doesn’t have a middle name, and my middle name is really my Chinese name.

2. How long have you been together?
We’ve been dating for 514 days (or 1 year 4 months and 25 days) according to my day counter app on Google.

3. How long did you know each other before you started dating?

We first met on the Badminton court in college. We were both avid players for over 10 years and enjoy pick-up games. For 2 years we didn’t really talk, we just see each other on the court and play our games (I believe we’ve even partnered in double games, but we are both experienced enough to know where the other person is and no talking is needed). We graduated 2 years later and ran into each other in the bus close to where we worked; we exchange contacts and agreed to lunch. The rest is history.

4. Who asked whom out?

I think technically neither of us did. It was mutual understanding and affection. I might have pushed a little harder to stay together when he was freaking out about the idea of us dating.

5. How old are each of you?

We are 2 years apart.

6. Whose siblings do you see the most?

I’ve met his brother twice, he has met my sister way more. The first time I introduced them we weren’t dating yet, and then it was my big birthday dinner, and another birthday dinner, and my big Chinese New Year feast at home. There’re probably some more outings here and there with my friends when they were both present. I like to make sure my sister likes him and accepts him, or at least they could relatively comfortably be in the same room. Same with my friends and our mutual friends; I have not yet met ‘his friends’.

7. Which situation is the hardest on you as a couple?

Can’t quite think of ‘hardest’ on top of my head, but one of the tougher scenarios is when he loses his cool. Both of us know and well understood that I’m quite a short circuit and I could blow up really quickly, and for a really short time. Usually he would just keep quiet and let that moment go, then I’d come back to my normal self and apologize, and cuddle to make things better. Otherwise, it’d just be a vicious spiral downwards. We’d get mad at each other for the other person being mad for no apparent reason, etc. But we’d eventually hug and make good.

8. Did you go to the same school?

We both graduated from UW. He graduated with EE master and I graduated with Business and Econ bachelors.

9. Are you from the same home town?

No. Vastly different background. He’s from Kollam, Kerala, India; I’m from Hong Kong. I still haven’t been to India and have very little concept of how big/ crowded of a town he’s from. I most often hear people comparing Hong Kong to NYC, whereas Kerala, as far as pictures go, looks like a beautiful tropical forest. The truth seems to be closer to some sort of a dense city though.

10. Who is smarter?

Depends on subject matter. I’m the planner/ control-freak so I’m really good in making sure everything is done on time and proper. Otherwise, he’s pretty smart too.

11. Who is the most sensitive?

Me… very self-conscious and needs constant reassurance/ recognition as I achieve perfection.

12. Where do you eat out most as a couple?

I’d say either my favorite hole-in-the-wall sushi place Musashi or the taco truck around the corner from his house Rancho Bravo Taco.

13. Where is the furthest you two have traveled together as a couple?

San Francisco…

14. Who has the craziest exes?

Don’t think either of us has any really. If one day I became an ex of his, I would be it.

15. Who has the worst temper?

Me again. I lose it when things are not perfect that way I want it (surely there’s a range of emotions, starts from sulking to snapping off for 1 second to completely pissed off for a day).

16. Who does the cooking?

He’s the head chef; I’d help if I really need to. I don’t like to cook because I don’t have any creative ideas (in general and cooking in particular). My top of mind recipe is top ramen + fishballs, or any instant dinner like frozen pizza, canned soups, toasts, or chips.

17. Who is the neat-freak?

I just know how things need to be kept in order to avoid situations where one is likely to lose or forget about things, as well as maximizing sense of space in a small room with lots of piles.

18. Who is more stubborn?

hmm I haven’t thought about that for a while. I think we’re both stubborn up to a certain level, but not too bad really. We’ve grown up. lol

19. Who hogs the bed?

That’s up for debate.

20. Who wakes up earlier?

Me, and I stay up later too. He’s the ‘weaker sex’ (just kidding)

21. Where was your first date?

Neither of us grew up with the concept of ‘dating’ so there wasn’t really a first date, future dates unlikely either.

22. Who is more jealous?

lol ask him.

23. How long did it take to get serious?

I have always been serious. Then again, if we define serious as “planning to get married” that takes thing to a whole new level that neither of us can be sure. After all, it’s India vs. China.

24. Who eats more?

If the question is ‘who CAN eat more’ the answer would be him; after all he’s 0.7lb/ inch heavier. Otherwise, it depends on the day.

25. Who does the laundry?

We do our own. He’s the one who has piles all around the room though.

26. Who’s better with the computer?

He is.

27. Who drives when you are together?

So far, mostly me, mostly because my car is older and I have more confidence driving in the States (he’s used to driving in India where there are no lanes nor traffic rules). So when we go to Snoqualmie we’ll take focus when we’re traveling between our own place and / or other errands, he’d drive. Otherwise he prefers to drive when he’s comfortable enough.

I love him for making me a better person.

Next Page »


Archives

Categories

Twitter Updates

Error: Please make sure the Twitter account is public.


Follow

Get every new post delivered to your Inbox.