Yum-e

I can't wait!

2012-01-12T12:16:00.001-08:00

From Farmer Joan's Garden: Kaki (persimmon)

2011-12-07T22:52:00.000-08:00

Happy birthday veggies

2011-12-05T08:00:00.000-08:00

A typical mac'n'cheese lunch with veggies can be a surprise source of culinary inspiration for a toddler.

Maybe my son will be a chef one day. He put a pea on a square cut carrot and gave it to me and said, "Happy Birthday Momma!" Awesome

Mochiko Chicken - Yum-e!

2011-12-04T08:00:00.000-08:00

FINALLY made this after a friend of mine had to make my other friend's recipe! *sigh* Why did I wait so long? It's sooo Yum-e!

Click here for the recipe from JustJennRecipes.com

My First Truffle

2011-12-03T08:30:00.000-08:00

Aren't they beautiful? These are Burgundy Black Truffles...or so says the truffle dealer I bought them from. What shall I make with them?What should I make with them?

Thanksgiving leftovers: Ham and Onion Frittata

2011-12-03T08:00:00.000-08:00

What to do with leftover Ham from Thanksgiving? Make a Ham and Onion Fritatta!

Sous Vide at home

2011-12-02T08:00:00.000-08:00

Attempting Sous Vide technique at home to slowly heat up left over rib roast. Using a glass to weigh meat down and a hot water trickle. Measured temp of water: our water temp only came up just past 100 degrees. You might want your water hotter to do this.

Click for more from the is set on flickr!

Turkey Cake Pop Craft

2011-12-01T08:00:00.000-08:00

Turned cake pops into a craft at Thanksgiving. Gave the kids the run of the candy bin and let them decorate their own turkeys! Turned out to be a great idea and a great way to involve the kids at Thanksgiving.

More from this set on flickr!

Every good 'wanna be' chef has a plan...

2011-11-30T23:31:00.001-08:00

...and mine is amateurishly affixed to my kitchen cabinets with blue painter's tape, ha!

Appetizers went out 6 minutes late but happy to say the roast got cut on time!

Dry Aging Beef

2011-11-30T22:00:00.001-08:00

Dry Aging Beef, a set on Flickr.

First try at dry aging beef. This was more like air drying since I didn't quite meet the minimum of 3 days. (This was about 2 1/2 days of aging, but turned out pretty good!)

Brea Macaroons!

2011-11-09T09:15:00.000-08:00

Finally, a place in Brea that sells macaroons! Now I can finally bring my good friend J some on a regular basis. :P I wish I had time to make macaroons again...maybe soon.

For those in Orange County, here is the new store's website. However, they are so new that the only thing you'll get is a pretty back-drop with a "Coming Soon" over it. Go here to yelp for more information on location, etc.

Thanks Helena for the heads up!

Halloween Witch Cake Pops

2011-10-31T12:15:00.001-07:00

Halloween Witch Cake Pops, a set on Flickr.

2nd cake pop attempt, this time for Halloween! These pops are destined for some ice cream couldrons later. :)

Happy Halloween!

Jose Andres The Bazaar

2011-10-24T18:03:00.001-07:00

Jose Andres The Bazaar, a set on Flickr.

Following Saam post with another visit to The Bazaar. Lots to eat - the dishes were hit and miss but still a great experience to be had. It's worth the visit - especially for DineLA prices!

Saam Tasting Room at Jose Andres' The Bazaar

2011-10-21T12:52:00.001-07:00

Saam Tasting Room at Jose Andres' The Bazaar, a set on Flickr.

Awesome, awesome experience at Jose Andre's Saam Tasting room at the Bazaar. 22 course tasting menu plus a couple cocktails made for a great experience. Enjoy!

My little sou chef

2011-10-18T22:55:00.001-07:00

What happens when you give a toddler access to one of your cupboards?

Notice how the bowls and lids are organized by type and size? Pretty cool!

Looks like my little sou chef is up to some cookery...

...and it looks like some tomato and carrot Soup, Mmmm!

Now he's given up cooking for hanging from the sink...think it's time to intervene.

Thanks little sou chef for making momma smile!

Technique at Le Cordon Bleu in Pasadena

2011-10-03T00:00:00.000-07:00

Techniques Pasadena, a set on Flickr.

Pretty fun experience at Technique, test kitchen at the Le Cordon Bleu academy in Pasadena. Here you can enjoy a 3 course lunch for $10! Reservations go quick and of course, portions are modest but c'mon, it's $10! It's just plain fun.

From the Garden: Bolting Green Onion

2011-09-19T00:00:00.000-07:00

From the Garden: Strawberries

2011-09-12T00:00:00.000-07:00

Kaya Toast and more from Susan Feniger's Street

2011-09-05T00:00:00.000-07:00

Kaya Toast, yum, yum, YUM!

From the Garden: weeds

2011-08-29T00:00:00.000-07:00

*sigh*

From the Garden: Carrots

2011-08-23T12:49:00.000-07:00

Al Fresco dining: French Laundry Lamb Recipe

2011-08-23T12:47:00.000-07:00

The weather was nice and I had 'al fresco' dining on my mind. A good day to try a new French Laundry lamb recipe...

Double Rib Lamb Chop with Cassoullete of Summer Beans and Rosemary (Click to see more)

From Farmer Joan's Garden

2011-08-23T12:00:00.000-07:00

Cherokee Purple Tomato? Can't remember but isn't it pretty?

Monkeying around with cake pops again...

2011-08-20T16:48:00.000-07:00

Epic Fail! (cake pop experiment)

2011-08-17T21:54:00.000-07:00

This is what happens when you use OLD chocolate and don't use a food processor to crumble your cake...

Half Moon Bay Lobster Roll

2011-08-17T21:18:00.000-07:00

Lobster Roll from Sam's Chowder House

And Olive Oil Ice Cream

Tis' the season for Chocolate Bread Puddin'

2010-12-14T13:57:00.000-08:00

So far, this hasn't failed me yet. It's been a hit but not sure if it's the bread pudding or the Rum Toffee Sauce that comes with it! People have had it without extra sauce and have loved it so I would have to say both are equally good. It's definitely RICH if you know what I mean. Of course, it's because it's a PAULA DEEN recipe. When people hear "Paula Deen" I either hear, "oh yum!" or "uh oh". Since Paula's middle name is BUTTER you can see why that's the responses I get. If you want to spice up your Holidays with a little Rum or a little BUTTAH, just try this recipe out. I'm sure it won't dissappoint.

*some notes:
-I'd heat the cream to warm it up a bit so that when it comes time to add the melted butter to the milk&cream mixture, your butter doesn't sieze up. There's a point in the recipe where you add the milk&cream mixture to the bread cubes and let sit for 15 minutes. If your butter is solidified in the mixture when you add it to the bread cubes, the bread won't absorb the butter. Of course, the butter will melt during the baking process but it may make for a greasier looking bread pudding in the end since some of the butter may just pool around the bread instead of getting absorbed during baking.
If you warm your cream, make sure to add only a little of the warm cream mixture to your beaten eggs&sugar at first to slowly warm the egg mixture else you'll scramble/curdle your eggs. (look up tempering)
-I also have substituted bittersweet chocolate for semisweet chocolate in the recipe for a crowd that liked dark chocolate and it went over well.
-If you like bread pudding with a more dense texture, make it the night before. When you make it the night before, make slits in the bread pudding right when it come out of the oven and pour about a cup of the Rum Toffee sauce over the pudding. Let it cool and then refrigerate. Heat before serving the next day.

LA people are so lucky!

2010-09-02T10:21:00.000-07:00

You guys don't know how good you have it (or maybe you DO!). Being able to eat at food trucks whenever you want - seeing them as you drive by while you're doing errands, on your way home from work or picking up the kids...dang it! So jealous! Sucks being behind the Orange Curtain sometimes...

OC Foodie Fest 2010

2010-08-30T22:19:00.001-07:00

OC Foodie Fest 2010
Originally uploaded by cbeans

Ludo was awesome!
@LudoBites, we ate Fried Chicken with Bernaise sauce and his biscuit side. Mmm Mmm Mmm!
@Lime Truck, we ate Crab, Lobster & Scallop Ceviche & Foie Gras Mousse! (Foie at the food trucks? what?! awesome!)
@Fishlips Sushi, we ate the Temari sampler. Very pretty! Kyoto Style sushi, our first!
@Maui Wowie, ordered a smoothie
@CoolHaus, we had chocolate chip cookie with Brown Butter & Candied Bacon Ice cream and chocolate chip cookie with Balsamic Fig & Mascarpone ice cream
@Flying Pig, we wanted to order the Pork Belly Bun (sold out) then we ordered the Duck Taco, but then asked for our money back when it took too much time to get our food. People were watching the food coming out. It came out 1 taco at a time, sometimes several minutes between tacos. :( With about 30 people in front of us, we couldn't wait another hour after ordering. :( too bad.

All in all, it was for charity. Enjoy the pics!

In honor of Bocuse d'Or

2010-08-20T23:42:00.001-07:00

See Seasonal Notes at the French Laundry
Man, if I was made of money...ask me where I'd be September 3-5 and I'd say, "I'll be hanging out with Chef Thomas Keller at the French Laundry." We'd all be dining in the gardens, having dinner at FL and checking out the latest of Chef Keller's creations Ad Hoc; all in support of the Bocuse d'Or USA Foundation. Oh, and I'd also mention that I'd be attending a private cooking demonstration by Chef Thomas Keller at the famous Culinary Institute of America, Greystone Campus.

I wish, I wish, I wish...

Snack Buffet Pics

2010-08-19T13:21:00.001-07:00

Baby Shower Snack Buffet Favor Table
Originally uploaded by cbeans

Finally uploaded the Snack Buffet pics from the baby shower I attended. Thanks to my girlfriend and her trusty cell phone camera, I was able to get some good pics of it. This picture should take you to the photo set. Colors for the party were blue, brown, yellow and green.

Love Amy Atlas

2010-08-17T01:10:00.001-07:00

Just finished my first attempt at a snack/candy buffet for a baby shower. I tried to follow Amy Atlas's examples (portfolio) with much needed guidance (snack bar how-to) from my very talented party designer consultant justjenn. I don't have pictures yet but will post them when I have the chance. I've always wanted to do one though and I'm very happy I got the chance to.

For now, I leave you with one of the Amy Atlas tables I was inspired by:

Photo owned by decor8

Farrell's Hawaii

2010-08-17T00:44:00.001-07:00

Farrell's Pearlridge
Originally uploaded by cbeans

We revisited an old childhood memory that I thought was lost forever. An old fashioned themed ice cream parlour with some crazy antics. My fondest memory is of the hot fudge served in a little silver cup. Alas, the silver cup has been reduced to plastic but it still tastes very good. I wanted to order the Mauna Kea but got the Pig's Trough instead - wish we had more people so we could eat more ice cream!

Lobster "Haute" Dog from Hank's Haute Dogs

2010-08-17T00:32:00.001-07:00

Hank's Haute Dogs
Originally uploaded by cbeans

Awesome awesome AWESOME! Too bad I caught a cold the next day that destroyed my taste buds or I'd have gone back to have the Foie Gras & Duck "Haute" dog the next day! "Triple D" got it right visiting this place!

French Parisian Macarons, revisited...

2009-06-04T15:14:00.000-07:00

J just sent me this link for making Nutella Macarons! Mmmm, I need to try these! Reading through the blog commentary on the recipe by Nicole of BakingBites.com, I noticed she incorporated much more technique than Martha Stewart did in her Macaron version. (By the way, I've been spelling "Macaron" completely wrong, what an idiot! Okay, maybe not completely idiotic since "Macaroon" is the accepted anglicized version of the original.) Anyway, I digress - Nicole's instructions make so much sense! Like the instructions she gives when adding the sugar to the egg whites...I've tried recipes before where they boil the sugar and water first before adding it slowly to the egg whites being whipped. I've never had a problem with nice glossy meringues using this method and it makes total sense to do it. Also, she adds a couple of the egg whites (non-whipped) to the "meal" mix which solves a big problem that I had with trying to get the egg whites (whipped) folded in nicely into the meal mixture. It just turned out to be a mess trying to get the beated egg whites into the meal mixture directly. I felt that I was losing so much of the air in the meringue by trying to fold the whites in. I have a feeling Nicole's way is going to solve my problem since I know for sure from past experience, folding meringue into a more fluid mixture makes for a better end product (I'm thinking mousse, etc.)

After trying Martha's Macarons a second time (referencing my *Update at the bottom of that post) and to my dismay failing miserably, I have renewed hope after reading Nicole's BakingBites.com post and am looking forward to creating beautiful looking Macarons once again! Now only to find Hazlenut Meal...

Baby Booties Cake Topper

2009-06-04T11:13:00.001-07:00

Isn't this the cutest cake topper?

Co-workers from work threw me an awesome afternoon tea shower and gave me the top of the cake to enjoy at home! It was so delicious! Chocolate and Raspberry, yum-e! And check out those cute little favors!

Loved the Piping!!!

Moffles attempt...w/o a waffle maker doh!

2009-06-03T13:40:00.000-07:00

So I finally tried Jenn's moffles recipe (Mochi Waffles) on Memorial Day morning.

I had been dying to try these! The only problem...I don't own a waffle maker. Whah..????!!! I've got an ice cream maker, a bread maker, a deep fryer, a couple crock pots and two rice pots. Heck, I even have a George foreman grill! But no waffle maker. What's up with that? So what do I do instead? Well, I bust out my pan and my egg fry rings. Here they are being buttered up in a bowl:

Looking good after pouring the batter in:

Removed the rings...so far so good!

Doh! Spillage!!!!

oh well - at least they're cooking.

I convinced myself that I had made "hidden Mickeys" on purpose, hahaha.

Besides my utter failure at cooking these with the WRONG appliances, the taste wasn't too bad. Not as crisp as the waffle maker would get them, but they tasted pretty darn good still with butter and some syrup. Thanks Jenn!

French Parisian Macaroons (a first!)

2009-05-18T14:20:00.000-07:00

Since there's not much I can do as far as painting when pregnant, I thought I'd try my hand (finally!) at Martha Stewart's French Parisian Macaroon recipe. I always thought these things were so daunting to try and have been warned by many a blogger. But I just LOVE these things - especially after the bakery tour Jenn took me on a while back. I can't get enough of these things and so I have been wanting to make these for a while. It only took me until I was preggers and swelling in the feet to be inspired, but oh well! Whatever works!

I think when any recipe calls for a piping bag, that's when a lot of people call it quits. But...since I had gotten into a cake frenzy last year, I already had the tools and so I was happy to bust them out again. I'm just glad they got some use after being totally abandoned after I got tired of cake making...

After mixing the batter and getting my piping bag filled and ready to go, I was piping away like crazy. These got done in no time! (I drew 1" lines on the parchment to guide me. I know there's a better way to do it, but I was too lazy to look it up. so much for my cake training)

Now the directions to say leave piped cookies out until the shine dulls a bit and a crust starts to form. I didn't see much dulling after 15 minutes and then gave up after 30 minutes. I wanted these babies in the oven already!

After 15 minutes with a turn of the pan 1/2 way through cooking and door left ajar, they were done!

Nice dull finish with those signature feet I just love!

It was time to pick tops and bottoms...

Now for the filling. Well, I skipped the directions for Martha's fillings for a much quicker solution...NUTELLA! Yum-e hazlenutty chocolaty goodness! I didn't have a #4 piping tip so I just used my #5 instead. Worked perfectly fine.

Time to add the tops...

All done! I can't believe it! The elusive French Parisian Macaroon...sitting in my kitchen just waiting to be eaten. I had so much fun making these and I'm so glad I tried these. I'm sure I'll be making these again. Maybe when I'm pregnant with baby#2? If I don't make these before baby #1 comes along it might take that long till I have this kind of time again!

**Update:
I tried these again having high hopes that I'd be just as successful as my very first try...WRONG! They were flat, filled with bubbles and bumpy and had absolutely NO FEET. :( So sad! Guess the warnings were correct! Things I did differently, I was NOT precise on the amount of egg whites that I used, losely measured the powdered sugar and baked at night instead of during the day. There's just too many things that could have made this recipe go wrong - so "follow the recipe" kids and cross your fingers that it all comes out right.

Ice Cream Jell-O!

2009-05-15T14:58:00.000-07:00

Tried my hand at Jenn's Ice Cream Jell-O recipe. I haven't tasted it yet and I've been chillin' it in the refrig overnight, but I can't wait! Not quality photos, but they'll do:

Natural separation of Jell-O and Ice Cream. I should've popped those bubbles with my spatula before letting it set! :(

*Update: These tasted GREAT! And the people at the party I took them too absolutely loved it and devoured it all. Thanks Jenn for the recipe! Going to be making this one a lot when I'm in a jam, it was so easy to do!

Chocolate Chip Cupcakes w/ M&M's

2009-05-15T14:45:00.000-07:00

What do you do with Yellow Cake Mix, Jumbo Milk Chocolate Chips & M&M's?

Not from scratch! See the bought frosting in the background? *sigh* wanted smooth lookin' ganache but it wasn't going to happen that night.

5 M&M's seemed like a good number

I actually had another 1/2 bad of these jumbo chocolate chips I wanted to use so I just dumped them into the batter. Wierd, they stuck to the sides of my mixer bowl and were a pain to get off! Then when test tasting one of the cupcakes, all the chips settled to the bottom. Made for a bit of a mess when eating them warm but I have a feeling they'll be a little more solid and less messy when cooled. (Though I think eating them warm is the best!)

I love my cupcake holder! (Though, on the second tier, the holder is not quite large enough to hold a regular cupcake upright. wierd!)

1st Wedding Towel Cake

2009-05-15T14:19:00.000-07:00

I had never made one of these before but thought that for an upcoming bridal shower I might take a stab at it. Turned out better than I thought! I wish I had taken pictures of the cake after adding little flowers to each tier and the base, but oh well.
Top Tier
Middle Tier
All 3 Tiers

Base made of cake board wrapped with decorative foil
Fastening the ribbon in the back with white glass head sewing pins
Final product with a ribbon for a cake topper

Pics from infamous Bakery Tour

2009-05-06T09:57:00.000-07:00

Some pics I ran across that were supposed to be for the bakery tour I took with my good friend Jenn. She's got waaay better pics, but here's some of the aftermath that I brought home to share with hubby and his friends:

Spoils from the L.A. Bakery Tour Trip

Sprinkles Cupcake with an Oscar Star!

Parisian Macaroons & Jenn's homemade Bouchons!

Amish Friendship Bread

2009-05-01T09:44:00.001-07:00

This is the first time I ever received a baking chain letter or sorts. This Amish Friendship Bread tradition was passed down to me by a couple co-workers. Let me tell you, it is a very curious thing to come into work and find a ziploc bag of some kind of batter on your desk. Of course, you don't know it's really batter until you read the recipe that is hiding underneath the bag. I was very curious and actually very excited to try it out once I found out what it was! It's based off of the concept of "the mother dough". A dough that doesn't need refrigeration at all - all it needs is to be fed and separated and passed along. I heard about this dough from sourdough documentaries on the Food Network but never for something like this.

First time I tried it, I absolutely failed! I missed the day for cooking...missed it by several days actually. Then I thought I could FREEZE it to save it...WRONG. the mixture completely separated and I couldn't get it to get back together again. So I threw it out and calle myself a failure. Then I got another starter from another co-worker who felt sorry for me and then I was finally sucessful. My husband and I enjoyed the cake so much, that I made it a couple more times - getting a bit obsessive with the variations trying a Pumpkin version and then a really Chocolately version that my co-worker had tried before. All Yummy! Though it was probably not a good idea to bake all these cakes when you're pregnant...I think my baby is now part Amish because of my experiments...

The Labor of the Tres Leches Cake

2009-05-01T09:29:00.000-07:00

When asked to make an exotic dessert for a party recently, the first thing I thought of was the Tres Leches Cake that I tried a very long time ago. I first had this cake at a restaurant in Los Angeles called La Ciudad. I dined there with college friends back in the hay day. I remembered something about "I'm never making this cake again" but I couldn't remember why. And I thought, "Well, maybe I wasn't as proficient of a baker back then...so maybe I'll give it a go now and it'll be easier." Oh HECK NO! I now remember FULL WELL why I stopped making this cake. Any cake where you have to 'pour liquid through cake until completely absorbed' is a time consuming and crazy recipe!

As good as this cake is, my arm nearly fell off after almost an hour of ladling that stupid liquid. Next time I'm doing it the easy way and baking the cake in a 9x13 pan and pouring the whole bowl of liquid in there. It may be mushy a bit but who cares...at least I won't lose another hour of my life to ladling! In the end, it turned out well and the ladies I served it to loved it so much they took all the left overs. (This cake is so rich, there's no way you can eat it all at one sitting...well, there is a way but you won't feel very good about it afterwards.)

Nutella Cupcakes

2009-05-01T09:20:00.000-07:00

FINALLY! Some time to do some nutella "no frost" cupcakes. I had high hopes for this recipe - though it came out a little less tasty than I had originally thought. Comments on the recipe to add nutella halfway through pouring in the batter in addition to the dollop on top for swirling is a good idea, I think, for those who are really looking for that nutella taste. Either that, or make some kind of hazelnut cupcake batter to bring out that flavor. But ya gotta admit, its a very pretty cupcake without any additional frosting to do after it's done cooking! It was still a great cupcake, I just think it could be even better somehow.

Recipe from Baking Bites

My first Lamb

2009-05-01T09:15:00.001-07:00

It's hard to believe that I didn't start eating this type of meat until about 8 years ago. Now I'm hooked! The fact that they're selling it in grocery stores now makes it so accessible to the home cook. Here's my first crack at making a rack at home:

The recipe called for brushing on Dijon Mustard which I'm not particulary a fan of but it was awesome. Gave the lamb a really nice flavor beneath all that seasoning of garlic and rosemary. Rosemary + Lamb is my absolute favorite combination for Lamb.

Restaurant.com

2009-03-11T14:13:00.000-07:00

Thanks to a friend of mine, Yoko, I've been tipped off to a current restaurant.com promotion for 80% their certificates. This means you could get $100 off coupons for just $8, or $50 off coupons for $4, etc., etc. To get this deal, you will need to enter "menu" as the promotion code when checking out.

Since you're here :) ... if you're interested:

Remember, even though the advertisement icon doesn't reflect 80% off, when you enter "menu" in the promotin code box upon checkout, it will update to an 80% off savings. :)

Happy discount eating!

L.A. Bakery Tour!

2009-02-24T15:31:00.001-08:00

Because I'm an idiot and left my camera in my car when I went on this tour, please follow this link. J's a much MUCH better writer than me anyway! By the way, my apologies for the absence...we're expecting! You'd think I'd be posting more about all the food that I've been eating but as a foodie - being pregnant is like being on a diet really. There's so much that I can't eat! :( oh well, nothing I can do about that. Thanks for visiting! Head on over to J's blog and read on about the bakery tour!

Green Tea Ice Cream

2008-11-20T18:00:00.000-08:00

Thanks to my co-worker Joy from work, I got to work with some really good Green Tea Macha Powder for my next experiment, Green Tea Ice Cream. Yuuuum-e!

The powder came in a very tiny tiny bag - I thought for a second that I'd need to use the whole thing! But I only needed a mere 4 teaspoons according to my ice cream bible that is The Perfect Scoop. =)

As you can see, the powder was a very rich green. However, when combined with the cream - the color wasn't exactly what I was expecting. Then again, that might be good. Sometimes REALLY GREEN foods aren't the most appetizing things.

After having a couple tries at this ice cream making thing, there's one part of the process that I've come to despise. And that part is getting that last bit of ice cream out of the bowl. Do amateur home ice cream makers know what I'm talking about? I'm talking about the ice cream that has frozen to the sides of the bowl making it impossible to remove without a very very stiff spatula! it's not like you can take a metal spoon to this thing so this part is very tasking, especially when the bowl is FREEZING COLD!

Anyway - it was worth it - green tea sweet creamy goodness was now packaged and ready for me to eat anytime. As always, I tested this out on my co-workers and got a few responses back. Some thought it was a bit rich for their liking; I probably could cut back on some of the egg yolks used in this recipe. Another thought the after taste was interesting; maybe a bit more sugar could tame that after taste but I don't know. I'd have to try it again sometime to see.

But all in all - it wasn't bad and I had a bit of an addiction to it in the afternoon surprisingly. Another experiment down...still trying to get to that Malt Ice Cream! arggggg...

Cookie Dough Ice Cream

2008-11-19T12:53:00.000-08:00

It was finally time to make something for my dear husband, poor guy. He had to wait this long for me to make something for him! He should've been the first recipient of all this ice creamy goodness but his request was not one for the first timer - or so I thought. Searching the Internet, I happened on this recipe. A recipe for imitating Ben & Jerry's Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Ice Cream.

This recipe had the usual base and so starting this recipe turned out not to be so bad at all. So I heated up the cream and eggs, etc. as usual on the burner and set aside the egg yolks and sugar for beating in my mixer.

While the cream was heating up, I started work on the cookie dough. Rather than make the dough myself (which I seriously thought to do so that I could like the bowl) I caved into my laziness and bought a tub of none other than Nestle Toll House Cookie dough from the market.

I measured out a cup and a half and then...

...proceeded to make little quinels of cookie dough.

BIG MISTAKE! These quinels, though small as they may seem right now, later turned out to be HUGE in the container. It made for very very tough scooping of the ice cream since that dough is very hard to cut through with a spoon when frozen - especially a plastic spoon!

Anyway, I digress. After putting the basic base into the bowl, you let that thing run and don't add the cookie dough in until 5 minutes before it's done.

This, we also would do differently only to get a better distribution of cookie dough in the ice cream. My husband suggested that I don't add the cookie dough into the machine, but to layer the ice cream and the cookie dough manually when putting the the ice cream into the containers. I think I will try that next time...with SMALLER PIECES! I'm telling you, the cookie dough bites were huge. Despite, things came out great and even the co-workers loved it...after having to break through a few plastic spoons that is. =)

Click on this!

2008-11-12T09:33:00.000-08:00

Now THIS WOMAN knows what to do with left over egg whites from ice cream making! Thanks J for the link!

I heart ...

2008-11-10T17:28:00.000-08:00

my ice cream maker is calling out to me...

Homegrown

2008-11-09T10:07:00.000-08:00

"Farmer's Market" Joan from work so generously gave me a couple lettuce plants as an experiment. She grows a couple lettuce varieties in her backyard and wondered how they'd do in pots.

Me and another co-worker of mine from work were interested in planting some winter veggies and lettuce. However, we didn't have the ground space to do it and so Joan brought in a couple plants in pots for us to take home and experiment with.

And man, I feel this much closer to Thomas Keller. Okay - a BIG stretch, but I am now eating salad made with lettuce leaves that came from my own back patio! I was so excited to eat my first homegrown salad - so much so, I JUST HAD to take pictures, hehe. (okay, a lot of pictures...who takes pictures of spinning salad?!)

Anyway - the salad turned out beautiful and we ate the fresh lettuce with a quick olive oil and red wine vinegar dressing. Wish I had bought some sweet red onions to go along with it...sorry Jaime Oliver, I have failed you. But it was great none the less. Fresh is best and it's just plain fun.

Lotus Root Tempura

2008-11-08T09:51:00.000-08:00

Mmm, Mmm, Mmm! I had fried Lotus Root when I did a chef's tasting at Maison Akira in Pasadena and was hooked! So the next time I visited Marukai for my once a month shopping spree - I picked up a vaccummed sealed bag of pre-sliced lotus root from the veggie section thinking I'd give it a try. (and giving ice cream a break for a while)

Now 'Fear of Fear itself' is a very strong thing. Because I had never worked with lotus root before (it's a strange looking root thing with holes in in when you slice it cross-section) I was intimidated by it. I was afraid I'd mess it up or it was one of those things that would taste horrible when not done exactly right. I was afraid of the unknown...but since my ice cream kick (no, I did NOT make lotus root ice cream)...I had renewed confidence in experimentation and thought I'd give the lotus root a go. (And of course, my husband would kill me if I threw another bag of food out because I didn't get around to using it - we're all about using/eating EVERYTHING and I get really depressed when I don't use something.)

So - the idea of lotus root tempura came to mind and the fear intensified. I'd never made a tempura batter before either! In desperation, I called my mom and my sister on the way home to ask them how to make it - they gave me a few tips but they could not recant the whole recipe. So out with the laptop again in the kitchen and googled 'Tempura Batter'. Not too bad really - with ice bath experience gained from ice cream making, making the tempura batter in an ice bath was a sinch. In not time I had batter and oil hot on the stove...I was ready.

I heard about using Peanut Oil for deep frying and thought maybe this would be a good spot to use it since it may lend some additional flavor to the root since roots really don't have too much flavor (i.e. Daikon). Plus, I didn't have anymore Canola Oil and I'm glad I ran out! Because the lotus root turned out great! Mind you, lotus root will give you more texture than taste so to bring out the flavor, sprinkle generously with flaked sea salt and if you really like salt, some regular spiced sea salt. I used a sea salt that I got as a gift. One of my high school friends runs an online spice shop in Hawaii with his wife, how cool!

Anyway - it turned out great and it's kind of like eating chips but not. The lotus root is crunchy and you can just keep eating these till they are all gone. My husband was very weary when he saw them at first and then he ended up eating half of the bowl with dinner. Hey - anything that tastes remotely like a chip that can give me a dose of vegetable is awesome in my book.

"Fear of fear itself"...no more! At least not with Lotus Root and Tempura, haha.

The Perfect Scoop - Dark Chocolate

2008-11-07T09:14:00.000-08:00

For my second ice cream experiment...I give you the cover of The Perfect Scoop, Dark Chocolate Ice Cream!

A girlfriend at work loves chocolate...and I mean LOVES chocolate. Her chocolate obsession is at odds with her love of healthier foods. One perfect example is a story she recants about eating Skinny Cow Chocolate Ice Cream sandwiches alongside a heaping spoonful of peanut butter, and I mean ON the spoon. With the ice cream sandwich in one hand and the spoon in the other, she'll take a bite out of the chocolate skinny cow sandwich and then a lick of the peanut butter; savor, swallow, repeat. Ah - it's the simple things in life y'know?

So, after my first experiment on my co-workers of my first ice cream, Passion Fruit w/ Macadamia Nuts, I decided to indulge in my co-worker's chocolate obsession and make The Perfect Scoop's Dark Chocolate Ice Cream. I had some Penzey's Dutch Natural Process Cocoa Powder and bittersweet chocolate in the cupboard and a pint of whipping cream in the fridge. I was contemplating running to the store to buy the heavy whipping cream, but got lazy and decided if I was going to finish this tonight that I better start it now!

I was worried; I thought that substituting whipping cream for heavy whipping cream in this particular recipe was an absolute no-no. But thank goodness, it came out alright. I thought it could have been darker tasting - I think my bittersweet chocolate wasn't exactly 70% - don't know, it didn't say on the packaging. However, my co-workers thought differently. So much so that the container somehow disappeared when I wasn't looking. They all loved it and so did my chocolate obsessed friend who is probably going to kill me if I bring in another ice cream before next week. I gotta pace the experiments or they're all going to hate me for contributing to the normal winter weight gain. But I can't help it! I feel like an evil ice cream mad scientist!!! And the freezer is starting to fill up with my mad experiments. Next experiment...Cookie Dough for the hubby.

Crazy about guava and passion fruit

2008-11-06T09:41:00.000-08:00

Back to when my pavlova had cooled, is was time to top it with good stuff.

Unfortunately, I had to assemble the pavlova with toppings at work (where we can't take pictures) so you won't get to see the finished product here but here's what I did...

A co-worker from work (not Joan this time surprisingly) brought in fresh picked guavas! Whoah! They were so fragrant, they smelled up the whole office! (In a good way. Well, at least to me.) So I took a couple home, peeled the fruit and removed the seeds then sliced the guava really really thin. Then I made a stabilized whipped cream adding more of the passion fruit compound I had on hand. Various recipes said to add a Tablespoon of flavoring...in retrospect, I would've added a little more since the flavor was very light, almost not noticeable. I had planned to bring extra Passion Fruit compound for drizzling.

So, I'm really sorry, but you'll just have to imagine Pavlova + Passion Fruit Whipped Cream + Freshly Sliced Guava all drizzled with Passion Fruit Sauce...Oh - it was so good. The tangyness of the guava and passion fruit flavors cut through the sweetness of the pavlova quite nicely. Another success and pretty easy to do. Kiwi as a topping would work well also. Yum yum yum!

What do you do with left over egg whites?

2008-11-05T09:13:00.000-08:00

You make PAVLOVA!

I LOVE using this sugar given to me by justjenn as a present. It's awesome and perfect for the Pavlova!

Trusty stand mixer and ingredients at the ready!

Whipped egg whites progression:

(Whisk on low till bubbles appear)

(Add sugar and whisk at medium till soft peak stage)

(turn to high speed and whip to stiff peaks)

Adding the cornstarch and vinegar:

My measuring tool in lieu of a circle drawn on parchment:

Into the oven for an hour and fifteen. Then turn oven off and leave pavlova in the oven OVERNIGHT with oven door ajar, now THAT I like! No storage issues until morning. =)

The finished product. My first Pavlova! Crispy outside and Marshmallowy inside, YUM!

Cooled and covered, this Pavlova will last another couple days...but for best results, eat sooner! (I won't be serving this for another day or so...so toppings in a later post.)

We all scream for ice cream!

2008-10-31T14:15:00.000-07:00

So - I've been waiting to buy this book for a looong time now but haven't been able to due to time constraints or lack of a coupon. When I first bought my ice cream maker, I was in Williams-Sonoma. I'm a little uncomfortable around sales people because I have a problem with saying "no thanks" and so when the girl looks at my ice cream maker and says, "there's a recipe book that's really great that you might want to buy..." I should've paid attention to what she was saying but I kind of just wrote her off. (sorry 'bout that lady!) I just wanted to take my ice cream maker and run out of there! Anyway, I did manage to remember the title...well, sorta. I remember there was the word "scoop" in the title. Not surprisingly, that didn't help much. Then I remembered that the book cover was BLUE. Well, that narrowed it down a bit. Then I went over to visit a friend last weekend and low and behold, there was the exact book I saw in Williams-Sonoma sitting on the top of a stack of several ice cream recipe books. (Someone in this house loves ice cream...) If this isn't a sign that I'm supposed to get this book, I don't know what else is. Come to find out - it's one of the top rated ice cream recipe books on the internet right now, yes! So by the end of this week, I will have my book by David Lebovitz which has grown into somewhat of an obsession to me just because it has eluded me for so long.

So I owe an apology to Miss Williams-Sonoma for trying to offer me something really useful and I just blew it. My apologies!

Passion Fruit Ice Cream with Macadamia Nuts

2008-10-30T16:06:00.000-07:00

Oh how I LOOOOVE my new toy!

This Cuisinart ice cream maker is just the most awesomest thing! When I first got this toy, I was so intent on making Olive Oil ice cream after having a taste of it at The Dining Room at the Langham hotel in Pasadena, CA. However, when I finally had the time to make some ice cream - I found out at the last minute that I needed "fruity" olive oil...well, I didn't have it and I wasn't about to go out to get it. So...whaddya know, I'd been waiting to make some kind of dessert with some Passion Fruit Concentrate I had bought on a cook's shopping spree with fellow foodie & cupcake queen but never thought about making ice cream with it.

I was so excited to use the Passion Fruit that all thoughts of Olive Oil ice cream were soon extinguished. I looked up a few recipes on the Internet and combining those recipes with ones that came with the machine, I was able to come up with something that might just work.

And work it did - took some to work to test on guinea pig co-workers and they absolutely LOVED it!

I can't believe it! My first try at this ice cream thing and it's a big hit. Hmm, what to make next?!

Well, I haven't forgotten about Olive Oil ice cream but I'm not sure how this will top the Passion Fruit really if you ask me.

This one came out pretty awesome. The tanginess of the Passion Fruit plays really really well with the creaminess of the ice cream. Yum yum yum!
If you're in the mood for commentary and more pics, check out the whole set here.

Link to recipe for Passion Fruit Macadamia Nut Ice Cream

Randomness...

2008-10-28T13:39:00.000-07:00

note: open all links in a new window or you will be irritated as heck reading this post by continually pressing your back button.

I need this to make this!

Looks just like a McDonald's deep fried apple pie.

*sigh* I haven't even started working with my new ice cream maker (I want to make this!) and I'm already distracted to try something else...talk about attention deficit disorder. =( Which reminds me, I need to buy this soon, maybe tomorrow.

*This post is what happens when you keep clicking on too many websites when originally looking for just one thing. I was just looking for an olive oil ice cream recipe when all the craziness above happened.*

Just in the area...

2008-10-27T11:07:00.000-07:00

Don't you hate it when you really don't need to buy something but you just do because you're "in the area"? I was in the Cerritos, CA area the other day and picked up some L&L Barbecue for my husband's dinner by the mall when I saw Goldilocks. (A Filipino establishment) I just HAD to pick up some ensaymadas! Those things are the bomb! Bread topped with sweet butter and...cheese! yes, you heard me right. And it's a glorious combination!

I first had ensaymada back in Hawaii as a kid from Zippy's bakeries across the island. Unfortunately they don't carry the said ensaymada anymore. It was a little twisted bread loaf topped with sugar and buttah! It was almost like eating bread and sugar sandwiches as kids! Goldilocks version is a bit different and I might actually like it better because of the use of a brioche type of bread and the addition of cheese. The "brioche" is not your typical brioche, it's a little lighter - but it works.

You should give it a try. And now Goldilocks sells them in smaller versions in prepackaged bags of 12! I LOVE it! These new versions look like they are just the "muffin tops" off the original. Elaine from Seinfeld would absolutely die for these. (or sue Goldilocks for taking her idea) Either way, it was just perfect for me because I like them with less bread and more buttah! MMMmmm, yum-e...

Papadakis Taverna

2008-10-16T13:33:00.000-07:00

Opa! *glass crashing!*

Took a drive down to San Pedro the other week to have dinner with the girls at Papadakis Taverna, a lively and festive Greek restaurant nestled in downtown San Pedro. I went there to, of course, see good friends and catch up on times but also to have LAMB...yum-e. I've been in a rack of lamb phase for the past few months and it wasn't dying down. So I was excited to get to have lamb again, but this time I was going to try something different. Instead of the rack, I was thinking about trying the filet, or "filetto" as the girls liked to call it. Excited and hungry - we opened our menus and to the girls astonishment...no filetto! There was a rukus, but soon one of the girls called the waiter over and asked about the missing filetto and he said, "ofcourse, we can do filetto if you like. It's just what we have on the menu without the bone." Elated again, the girls all ordered filetto, with two exceptions. One ordered the steak (which turned out to be huge!) and I ordered the lamb WITH the bone. From my Dad's teaching, any meat with the bone on will tend to be juicier and if you order medium rare, you're more likely to get medium rare with the bone in than with the bone out. But I digress...

There's nothing that catches your attention like fire...yes, I said "fire"...but I mean this in a good way. Our tastebuds were greeted first by Flaming Cheese! And we mean FLAME...that thing must've flamed up a few feet! makes the whole restaurant go "whoah!" everytime. :) Mmm, it was very good. But I think things always taste better when presented to you flambed. AND...this was on the house! Mmmm, a very nice way to start the evening!

On our tables were plates of Toasted Bread served up with yogurt sauce. Oh, this hit the spot too! The sauce was so refreshing! And that bread just looked so fantastic with those grill marks and the yellowish tinge of butter/olive oil.

Next was my favorite! I love Avgolemono Soup...LOVE it! (Greek Egg-lemon soup) And I was looking forward to this almost as much as the lamb since I can't always get this soup everywhere I can get lamb...so this was nice.

We were then served up a very nice house salad...just look at all that cheese!

Here's the famed filetto we'd been talking about. Some of the girls had not eaten here in many years and filetto had become in their heads something of a fantasy:

Then came the lamb - here's mine with the bone (not as appetizing a picture as the filetto, but believe me, it was good!):

It was really good lamb - though, I think I'm still a rack of lamb kinda girl...but that's just a matter of choice. And the entertainment is surely entertaining. The owner and the wait staff get together and do some traditional greek dancing and boy do they entertain! They of course targeted our table since it was filled with 7 women...my girlfriend was an easy target. I'd tell you the story, but then she'd kill me from embarrassment. They also had belly dancing and the woman entertainer was really good! She's also a jazz singer come to find out. This place was just full of talent. All in all it was fun and worth the visit...if not just for the very polite and friendly/fun atmostphere.

Nothing like Baklava at a Greek restaurant! Served alongside Walnut cake and raspberries:

We also had some raspeberries alongside some plain old vanilla ice cream:

Now this impressed me...free apertifs for everyone! I LOVED this because I just love dessert wine - well one that isn't too syrupy and this was juuuuust right. :) Such a nice way to end the evening - on something that was compliments of the house.

As for the evening, I had a great time! Lots of laughs and entertainment. The entertainment isn't something you normally get with your dinner. Neither is complimentary flaming cheese or apertifs. My one disappointment...not getting to see Mr. Papadakis break any glasses which I heard he often does. But come to find out, it might have been our fault since during on of the dances, Mr. Papadakis (it has been told) sometimes picks up a glass from a guests' table and then flings his head back and throws the glass behind him onto the floor...but apparently, my girlfriend picked up her glass right before he was going to do it so Mr. P just continued on. haha, oh well - but I did actually hear some glass crashing...but it was an inadvertent one from the kitchen. These people know how to have fun and they know how to serve their food AND they know how to entertain. Sorry to hear that they may be selling off their business soon. Hopefully we get to eat there again before that ever happens. I don't think anyone can dance quite like the owner Mr. Papadakis can...

Papadakis Taverna
301 West 6th Street
San Pedro, California 90731-3317
(310) 548-1186

p.s. For you USC fans, the Papadakis family are BIG USC supporters...and here's why. Go Trojans!

Ratatouille doesn't sound delicious. It sounds like "rat" and "patootie."

2008-08-15T10:58:00.000-07:00

As any of my close friends can attest, I just LOVE the movie Ratatouille! The movie "(rocks) me to my core". Not only is it about cooking, it's about FRENCH cooking and we all know how I just loooooove The French Laundry. So, though I've been in love with this movie forever, I have never made the said "Ratatouille". A "peasant's dish" that is just so good! (Sorry for the misleading post title) I never enjoyed vegetables quite some much before - but maybe it's because this dish is so pretty. Here's some pictures from my first attempt at making the dish which is a combination of smittenkitchen.com's interpretation of the movie's ratatouille and Thomas Keller's (via the new york times) version of the inspiration for the movie, a recipe for Confit Byaldi.

*small note: I left out the star ingredient which is eggplant because I don't particularly like eggplant but I think it's a childhood dislike that I need to get over because this dish was MADE for eggplant and it's not as fantastic without it. It's still good - but the eggplant I think would make it great. Yikes, did I just say eggplant would make something taste great? I must be going crazy...or just plain growing up. :)

I just loved how the mandoline cut vegetables looked in little towers and just had to snap some pictures of them.

Making the Piperade

Laying out the slices of vegetables onto the piperade starting with a strip of alternating vegetables down the center. Man, this part was just fun and beautiful!

Parchment cover just like the movie!

And into the oven then...

And...TADAAAAH!

I tried so hard to make the stacks just like Thomas Keller did in his Ratatouille interview but my ratatouille just wasn't dense enough. But I did my best giving it a little twist of the wrist using tongs and this presentation is what I ended up with.

The best thing aside from this dish tasting fantastic is that it just looks so pretty while you're making it! I had so much fun making this dish and would love to do it again when I have the time. Ofcourse, next time I'll put in the much hated eggplant because afterall - that's what ratatouille was made for, to celebrate the eggplant. Try it out!

What I'm eating now...

2008-08-12T10:32:00.001-07:00

Fresh "Joan's Farmer's Market" figs topped with Goat Cheese from Pescadero and a dollop of honey, Mmmmmm! My co-worker Johnny's creation using fresh figs homegrown from another co-worker's (Joan's) backyard. Never thought that coming to work would ever culminate into a culinary experience...who wouldn't want to work here?!

Love me some butter!

2008-06-03T18:15:00.000-07:00

Mmm, mmm, MMMM! How I love it when people cook with butter! Check this recipe out. J is having a great time going through Thomas Keller's Ratatouille Cookbook for kids and her latest recipe was Thomas Keller's Chocolate Bouchons. Oh man, with 3 sticks of butter in this recipe I am in heaven. Save this one for a really special occassion!

Click here for delicious photos!

Love me a cupcake!

2008-05-29T10:40:00.000-07:00

I just *heart* these cards!!!!!

Click here to see more!

This woman really knows her stuff. Checkout the REAL cupcakes she makes here.

French Laundry Attempt #3!

2008-05-05T11:38:00.001-07:00

Or is it only our second? technically the fourth? Oh whatever, I don't remember now. But last week was all about experimenting and trying out another new dish from the FL cookbook! I was so excited! This time I was going to attempt the Butter Poached Lobster with Beet Essence and Pommes Maxim. The lobster, ofcourse, in that dish is fantastic! It doesn't get any better when lobster is poached in BUTTER. But in addition, there is this fabulous beet essence sauce. Mmmm, just the right touch of butter, just the right touch of tang...I'm starting to sound like Remy from Ratatouille. Anyway - each day last week was spent experimenting with a piece of the lobster recipe (& also a couple other things on the menu I was planning). By the end of the week - I was ready! (or so we thought) We had never worked with live lobsters before and I was a little worried; especially since lobsters aren't quite the food you want to just experiment with. So, the day of, we were supposed to steep the lobsters first (partially cook them just to be able to get the meat out of the shell) and then refrigerate them. That took a little longer than I expected but it ended up going well. But that whole lobster process is for another post sometime later maybe.

Anyway - here are some pics:

Getting ready! Stations set!

Recipes for courses 1-6?
2nd set of plates in the background. (1st set out of view to the left)
Some melon being prepared for Endive and Melon salad with prociutto ribbons.

Recipes for last two courses (not including compliments)
3rd and last set of plates in the background.
Trusty stand mixer...actually no needed on the day of.
Coffee maker at the ready!

Printed menus for the guests

Nice pic my husband took

The table

Amuse Bouche: Cold Cucumber & Melon Minted Soup

Lined up for service!

Endive & Melon Salad with prociutto ribbons

Smoked Salmon with Creme Fraiche

Amaretto Prawns

Maguro (Tuna) Tower

French Laundry Butter Poached Lobster w/ Beet Essence and Pommes Maxim

Foie Gras Pate with tasting salts

Filet Mignon w/ Cabernet Reduction Sauce, side of butternut squash and sage puree with browned butter sage leaves

Manchengo Cheese and Black Grapes

Deep Fried Caramel Macadamia Nut crusted Vanilla Bean Ice Cream on a Dark Chocolate Sauce

After dinner coffee ofcourse

Mignardises: Creme Brule, Chocolate dipped strawberries and Amaretti Cookies

The Aftermath...doesn't look too bad huh? Time for some Zzzzzz's!

*for more notes on the food...click here

Week 4 Results: The Wilton Rose

2008-05-05T11:37:00.000-07:00

Week 3 Results: Drop Flower Cake

2008-05-05T11:36:00.000-07:00

graveyard of broken drop flowers :(

Week 2 Results: Hello-Kitty

2008-05-05T11:35:00.000-07:00

Point at which my hand cramped up. Note to self, buy the 3 start tip to make this job a whole lot easier...or take the fondant class and be done with it!

The ugliest bottom border ever. Got lazy at this point and just wanted to finish it.

This cake is dedicated to my niece in Guam. :) This cake was made not too long after her birthday and she was my inspiration. Too bad I can't send it to her. I hope she likes it!

An abundance of cake...

2008-05-05T10:30:00.000-07:00

My poor co-workers...I don't think they've had to eat so much cake before. I had been taking a Wilton brand cake decorating class (Class 1) from the craft store down the street and ended up making a cake a week for 3 weeks straight. It was a four week class, but the first class doesn't count since you just show up with no cake, just a pen and pencil.

It was a good experience, though stressful at times trying to get all your icings in all the required textures and in all the colors you want for your cakes. That was probably the hardest thing to organize. I had to leave work early twice to get it all done! *sigh*, not acceptable. If you take the classes people, don't be like me, the procrastinator! All your cakes can be made and frozen ahead of time and the icings last more than a couple weeks in your fridge so there's no reason to stress out like I did if you do your homework like you're supposed to. Anywhoo - here's the results of my class. :)

Results of 2nd Week: (6" round, Hello-Kitty character cake created using a trace-transfer, filled with a bunch of stars and dots and a really ugly simple piping along the bottom border...I got tired)

See follow up posts for detailed picture breakdown of this cake.

Results of 3rd Week: (8" round pink & white drop flower cake with vanilla-butter butter cream frosting)

See follow up posts for detailed picture breakdown of this cake.

Results of 4th Week: (10" round chocolate buttercream frosted cake with pink rose bouquet accent and sweet pea and shell border)

See follow up posts for detailed picture breakdown of this cake.

Chocolate, Santas and Christmas Houses

2008-02-20T11:24:00.000-08:00

Wow - what a start to the new year...already behind. :) But better late than never. Here's one of several Christmastime posts I never got around to because of the holiday craziness and the waves of colds and flus that have been making their rounds this winter. Late last year, I had the opportunity to pick up some candy training! I haven't melted chocolate in such a long long time and it's amazing and fun to see what they've come up with lately and man - it's cool! I actually went to a candy class - but that's for another post since that happened AFTER my intro to the whole melting chocolate thing given to me by my dear girlfriend who graciously opened her house to me and shared her chocolate melting candy secrets! She was awesome...and an avid Christmas Village House collector also! I cannot start this post without showing you some of her houses...she has MILLIONS of them! Okay - maybe not MILLIONS but she has a lot. Two rooms full and several shelves high. It was very cool to see them all.

An Ice Castle!

Look! It's even the coke guys!

Okay - onto the chocolate...here you'll see my friend's staging area for the chocolate. She's got the chocolate in microveable safe plastic bowls for easy heating and a not so cheap warming tray. This tray looks a lot like a tray sold at Bed Bath and Beyond, but unless the tray has temperature controls on it - you should be careful what you buy. A warmer tray without controls for melting chocolate could be a disaster!

On the warming tray there's some Butterscotch Chocolate at the top, some white at the bottom and some white tinted red in the middle. What will she be making with all this?

Tadah! SANTA COOKIES!

Aren't they CUUUUUUTE??!!!!!!! Here's what they look like on a nice foil platter, ready to be wrapped for a gift.

And this below was so interesting!

It's "Caramel Popcorn" made with mixing butterscotch melted chocolate into a bowl of pre-popped popcorn. It really tasted just like caramel corn! The texture is a little different - but it's so much easier on the teeth and yummy because it's CHOCOALTE! You gotta try this.

After melting down some milk chocolate, she made these Peanut Clusters.

Notice the cute Red and Green Christmas Tree decorations on them? The sprinkles this girl had were soooo cute!

And last but not least, here are some amazing no bake fudge's that she made with a plastic mold that she had. I've been told by my co-workers that it looks so polished and perfect that they could not believe it was not store bought!

The one above is decorated with Christmas tree sprinkles and the one below with cute Candy Canes!

But man, do you need your sweet tooth for this one! Between the two I believe there is a pound of chocolate between them! Yum-e!

Well, hope you liked the very late but deliciously filled with chocolate post. Thanks to my girlfriend for her wonderful hospitality and for sharing all her chocolate secrets! It was fuuuun!

Cool Beans! It's a real saying...for real...

2008-02-20T11:02:00.000-08:00

I do not lie...okay - maybe just sometimes, but not THIS time. :) I picked up a saying somewhere right before college and ever since, I've been ridiculed for saying it. "What's the saying?" you say? It's "cool beans!" as in "cool beans dude" or "that's cool beans!"

...whah?...

*crickets*

Okay - so this is a totally stupid post only those who knew me back then would understand. Anyway...it's still proof that the phrase exists and is even used by the highly popular food network. So...SO...THERE! Ha! ha! ha...heh...eh...

ALTON!

PROOF!

(This is me not believing the proof and double checking what the network called it. haha - me of so little faith!)

"Gyu Kandou It!"

2008-01-04T17:28:00.001-08:00

Oh - we had a faaabulous time celebrating my sister-in-law's birthday at Gyu-Kaku in Huntington Beach. Older brother-in-law hooked us up with a private room reservation and we went crazy! There was sake and "beeeru" flyin' all over the place and we were all having a great time. But let me tell you about the meat. The meat was fantastic! We ordered at the most, 4 kinds...yes, yes, doesn't sound like a lot but I was so full by the end of the night! Of the meats, we ordered the Misuji Flat Iron (21-day aged Black Angus Flat Iron Steak w/Garlic), the Kalbi Short Rib (21-day aged boneless Black Angus Short Rib w/Tare Sweet Soy) and the Rosu Sliced Ribeye (Lean sliced Rib Eye s/Ponzu Citrus Soy). My favorite was the Misuji Flat Iron, it was really really tender! We did order another meat - but it wasn't considered so by some of the more conservative family, haha. I enjoyed with older brother-in-law slices of the Atsu Tan (Thick cut of Beef Tongue). It...was...GOOD! I loved it, so much in fact, we ordered another order.

Now don't just order the regular beef tongue (Gyu-Tan)...if you're going to order this, it's better to order the thicker slice to really enjoy the texture of it. (I know that sounds gross, but I don't mean the bumpy part of the tongue kind of texture, I mean the toughness of the meat) If you get it thin, kind of just tastes like any other meat really. But what the heck, order both and you tell me what you think. :)

But I have to tell you - the most interesting thing I had was a vegetable and the reason why only makes sense because the taste of that vegetable closely resembled something I had been craving for YEARS and have not been able to find again...that elusive something is breadfruit. The vegetable that we ordered at Gyu-Kaku which totally brought back memories of breadfruit in an instant was the order of Japanese Sweet Potato. Steamed in butter (just like Grandma used to do with the breadfruit), it had a texture similar to that of breadfruit when it's steamed. Very starchy and I LOVED IT! Thanks to my husband's sister-in-law for the recommendation! (following all the "in-law" references? still with me?)

Anyway - loved the place. It's still as good as it was when we first tried it on Kapiolani Blvd. back on Oahu, Hawaii. If you get a chance, try it out! And they're on Opentable.com's website also for your convenience (click on icon to your top-right for a quick re-direction).

If you try the Atsu-Tan, let me know what you think!

More on cereal!

2008-01-04T16:57:00.000-08:00

No way! Girlfriend just hooked us up with a visit to Juju's Cereal Bar in Westwood, CA!

Check out the picutre she took of the place here. Or even better, read her recap here.

Thanks J!

Happy New Years!

2008-01-04T16:38:00.000-08:00

We spent ours at a friend's and enjoyed a New Year's FEAST that included traditional Japanese New Years dishes. Not pictured in the picture I believe is my favorite, the traditional Ozoni soup. Oh I could eat that soup all year round!

The chef nearly died making it all - seriously... There is not enough words to express our thankfulness for her gracious hospitality.

We had a blast and ate to the fullest. How did you spend your New Years?

Cereal on the brain...

2008-01-03T16:27:00.000-08:00

Wow - this is the most awesome place ever! Okay - maybe I'm just a little excited because they actually let you put CONDENSED MILK on your cereal as a topping - but you gotta admit, if not ever, it is still awesome. My crafty culinary buddy just sent me a link to the menu from this place and it is jam packed with so many of my favorites! Frosted Flakes, Fruity Pebbles, Malt Balls (yeah!) and of course...Condensed Milk (oh-ho-ho). And what rock have I been under that I did not know there was an Eggo Cereal?!!! Oh, and check it out - they've even got Banana Milk! I'd really like to try the strawberry milk;reminds me of my Strawberry Nesquik days, yum-e. I've never been to this place but that doesn't stop you from trying it out! (& coming back here to tell us all about it!) Thank goodness I don't live near this place, I'd be eating there everyday...

Always missing the party...

2007-12-11T10:11:00.000-08:00

Open Table just added Longhi's (Wailea, Maui)...just about month after we went there. That's a whole 100 pts I lost! Oh the humanity!

*it's boring at work today, cut me some slack* :P

Ah, it's not a big deal - but it just reminded me of how I need to post my Maui eating pics to the blog and share our eating adventures. If you ever go here, or any of the other Longhi locations (see website), try the Amaretto Prawns! Yum-e!

PRAWNS
AMARETTO
Gulf prawns, in the shell, sautéed in
Amaretto, brandy,
fresh orange juice, and cream,
creating a sweet,
rich sauce with almond overtones.

But be warned, it's a sweet dish. If you're looking for more savory - I'd pick another dish, maybe the Ahi Torino...

AHI
TORINO
Fresh Hawaiian sashimi grade tuna,
delicately marinated, encrusted
in macadamia nuts
and bread crumbs.
Sautéed in lemon and butter.

*smackin' lips and wishin' for the cabanas by the Maui shore* *sigh*

"All sides please, we're really interested in dessert"

2007-11-08T09:05:00.000-08:00

What brave souls (or crazy by other people's standards) would go to a restaurant run by Tom Colicchio, celebrated culinary figure and host of TV's "Top Chef" program, and in response to "What would you like to order?" say, "All sides please, we're really interested in dessert". Alright, alright, I exaggerate but it almost went down like that. We shared an entree and ordered not 1, not 2, not 3 but FOUR sides! Yes, four sides. Here's our story...

Me and a friend of mine went to dinner at Craft in Los Angeles and just had a ball. We had originally thought we'd each order an entree, share an appetizer and get a few sides before dessert. But in the excitement, we forewent the entrees since the sides were so tantalizing. And thank goodness that we decided to go that way because before our first side/appetizer came, something straight out of The French Laundry playbook came into play...our first "compliments of the chef"...

This was a cured fish (sorry I don't remember) with a citrusy sauce and greens. My girlfriend, wary of fish - especially raw fish, skipped the fish tasting and just had the sauce. It was nice - but it didn't blow me away. Being that I LOVE sushi, maybe I'm a little more biased, but for craft - it was good. But who am I to complain about something that comes compliments of the chef?! This compliment came as palette teaser and not meant to be like sushi and so based on that, I say it worked.

Ah - onto the Peekytoe Crab & Sweet Corn and Foie Gras, Quince & Pistachio

This was sooo good! Oh that Peekytoe Crab reminded me of a seafood casserole I had when I was a kid, that unfortunately, I have not been able to find a decent matching recipe for. And of course, the Foie Gras. Oh - wish I didn't like it so much because the serving at Craft is amazingly large for an order of Roasted Foie Gras. I was in heaven, espeically since I had it all to myself because my girlfriend just couldn't eat all that fatty goodness, though, she did like the candied pistachios adorning the foie gras.

Hen of the Woods mushrooms side (AKA Maitke Mushrooms)

Oh - when I first had this at Craft, Las Vegas, I was in heaven. My husband, who absolutely HATES mushrooms, looked at the mushrooms in disgust. But I absolutely LOVED them and told my girlfriend she just had to try it! So she did and loved them. As you can see, these mushrooms are huge! I love them because the leaf like stems get crunchy during the cooking while the meatier base is so full of flavor. I could just eat a few of these mushrooms as my entree really. (well, we kinda did)

Oh no, I am missing a pic here...here should rest our Thanksgiving side of the nite, White Sweet Potato & Marshmallow...

Oh - this was a heavenly creation. It sent memories of thanksgiving and camping through my head. The use of white sweet potato made it surprisingly lighter than I expected and the toasted melted layer of marshmallow at the top was heaven to my taste buds. My friend had to stop after a while, said it was a bit sweet for her but she knew this my my kind of dish. I would like to try to replicate this dish using the lighter sweet potato...hopefully in time for this Thanksgiving.

The one entree we ordered was the Hawaiian Blue Prawns with Lemon Verbena...

We both shared this dish and both agreed, we won't be ordering it again. Not that it didn't taste good but the flavor implied more of just a garlic shrimp than of something that contained any lemon in it. "Where's the lemon in this? Where's that yummy lemon verbena taste that we love?" My friend is a lemon lovah and she was so looking forward to this and was so let down.

On to desserts!

First we had the Tom's take on a Reese's Peanut Butter Cup, Peanut Butter Cup with Caramel Gelato

It was nice and interesting...but if you are a Reese's Peanut Butter cup fan (like I am) it's just okay. There is peanut butter in the chocolate disk you see on the right hand side that had a smooth texture with a crisp chocolate crust. It was good - but certainly not better than the candy. The salt was mainly in the crust which is, I think, the complete opposite of a Reese's Peanut Butter cup (most of that salt taste is in the peanut butter from what I've observed). But hey, that's just me and I'm no celebrity chef.

Next: Glazed Donuts with Spice Pear Jam...

I was trying to avoid drinking caffeine and so was my friend, but I HIGHLY recommend getting caffeinated coffee with this baby. The glaze on the donuts is not your normal glaze. It felt a little tangy and I thought that was a nice touch. The colorful touches to the plate were very interesting. The Pear Jam my friend loved. The chocolate "pudding" was more like a silky yummy ball of chocolate that we liked to eat alone and the greenish swirl was some kind of coffee bean mousse, it was great...but really needed coffee to finish this off which is probably the expectation of the chef because of course, it's meant to be coffee and donuts! This dish was just a lot of fun.

The Ice Cream Machine of Doom!"...the most anticipated dish of the evening, Maple Bacon Ice Cream...

I have a bad habit of not wanting to eat dessert before my meal, or even WITH my meal. In this case, the habit is a good thing to have been observed. This dish was not as we had expected. My girlfriend, after her second bite, did not touch it for the rest of the evening. I, on the other hand, didn't think it was too bad until the big chunk of bacon I was left chewing. I would have liked it more if the bacon bits were just that, BITS. I think the ice cream could have been sweeter to offset the salty of the bacon, but I think because it was a little on the lighter side, the bacon took over and then it was all over for us. Too bad, I wanted to give Tom a thumbs up for his Iron Chef like creation using the Ice Cream Machine of Doom but I just couldn't. But I have to thank him for giving us a chance to taste such a creation that I would otherwise only watch on TV since I do not have an ice cream maker of my own.

Just when we thought we were full...more compliments of the chef! Tiny little macaroons and chocolate covered toffee with nuts. Always yum-e...

And last but not least, a spiced muffin to boot, packed and ready for us to take home. Again, compliments of the chef.

Ahh - so full by this time, we were happy to see the packed the muffin to go and happily left our table. Though, not everything was what we thought or satisfied our individual tasting palettes, we were none-the-less entertained and very happy. We love a chef who is willing to put all kinds of interesting things out there for us to try (& give us so many complimentary things!). Craft's menu plays to our side-lovin' foodie personalities and we are already hoping to come back to Craft to try the plethora of other sides available. Though, we're bringing more people next time so we can order more stuff! LOL.

p.s. Our dinner of 2 was meant to be 3 but unfortuantely, one of our lot came down with food poinsoning the day before. So sorry Rokes! We hope you enjoyed this post and will be able to come with us next time. :)

Morimoto, my hero

2007-11-04T14:11:00.000-08:00

I was out to dinner with a very good friend of mine when the topic of the Morimoto (a celebrated chef from Japan's hit show Iron Chef) signing at Newport's Sur La Table last month came up. I wrote about what Morimoto had said to me when I was at the signing about a restaurant in Hawaii opening up but I reserved a post about the signing until I could get the pictures out of my phone. Yes, that's right - I FORGOT MY CAMERA when rushing off to the signing and had to resort to my camera phone. So I apologize for the quality of the pics, but at least I got pics.

When I arrived there, I walked in the store to inquire about the signing. I saw the poster on the sidewalk and knew it was happening but didn't know the logistics.

I've never done this kind of thing before and Morimoto was going to be the first celebrity chef I had ever met in a signing! I had the privilege of meeting Morimoto at his New York restaurant when me and my husband were on our honeymoon a year back and that was awesome! We even got to take a picture with him! For the signing, I also brought a copy of the picture with me in hopes of having him sign it.

I walked up to the counter asking for a book and also asking about the signing logistics. The clerk replied that they'd probably start sooner since Morimoto had arrived early anticipating traffic. I was like, "he's here?!" (like a star struck idiot) And she replied, "Yeah, don't you see him back there? He's shopping!" LOL - and to my surprise, there he was, in shorts a t-shirt and the signature pony tail. I couldn't believe it. There were some people back there pretending to be shopping trying to get close to him but I could not brave doing the same thing. I just paid for my book, thanked the clerk and took my place in line.

I was about the 10th person in line.

I was starting to get nervous. He had since changed from the shorts and t-shirt into a green kimono, same one from a page in his book - pretty cool! Anyway - I really didn't have much to say because I was pretty star struck. I just smiled and stared in awe at him until the woman said, "would you like a picture with him?" and I obliged. It wasn't until he saw the picture of me and my husband with him that I tucked into my book (sneaky!) that we actually began to converse. He looked at me after looking at the picture almost asking 'is that me?' (jokingly of course) I explained to him, or rather his publicist about our honeymoon visit to his restaurant. He laughed, drew a mustache on his face (omg!) and then signed it. As always, he is such the comedian. Soon we got talking about how I was from Hawaii and he mentioned that he'll be opening a restaurant in Oahu soon. I asked excitedly, "how soon?!" and he replied, "May...unofficial...but May." Wow - Morimoto just told me he'd be opening up a restaurant...little ole me! I know it's something so simple and other people are like, "whatever" but dang - I was just super excited. I thanked him in my best Japanese (arigato-gozaimasu) and did this awkward half bow and practically ran out of the store out of embarrassment. I'm an idiot, but that's besides the point. I had just met Morimoto and it was one of the best culinary experiences of my life.

p.s. Thanks J for telling me about the signing! I wouldn't have gotten to see him if it weren't for your heads up. Thanks!

What's your Halloween Candy Personality?

2007-10-29T14:43:00.000-07:00

A poll fit for Halloween! What is your Halloween Candy Personality? According to the Washington Post I'm "Purely deluded people. They don't get that candy shouldn't attempt to imitate other food groups, particularly corn."

Some of the other candies are hilarious! What personality are you???? Post here!

Find your Halloween Candy Personality Here

p.s. don't bother trying to vote - the site hangs unfortunately. Click here for the results!

(photo downloaded from here)

Something great's coming to Hawaii...

2007-10-09T00:03:00.000-07:00

Directly from the horse's mouth...Morimoto will be opening up a new restaurant on the island of Oahu Hawaii in May 2008! It's "unofficial" ofcourse - but when the chef himself tells you this (& his publicist?) it's pretty official to me. :)

Mahalo Morimoto!

Chinese Banquet!

2007-10-03T11:20:00.001-07:00

Wow, the co-workers that I go to dinner with to celebrate every "season" never cease to amaze me with their dining choices. For the "season" of Fall, one of the girls suggested a Chinese Banquet Style dinner just like those you get to experience at a Chinese Wedding and sometimes Vietnamese Wedding. I was so excited when I heard of the cuisine of choice because Chinese Banquet is one of my faaavorite things to do! There are just not enough people getting married these days with these kinds of reception banquets to quench my palate! Forgive me, but I think I need a new camera because these pictures do NOT do the dinner justice. It was a great time - especially when they serve you everything! I didn't have to really lift any spoons except my own. LOVED THAT!

Pan Fried Scallops

My neighbor's prettier scallops with pink hydrangea flower accent

Deep Fried Stuffed Crab Claw

(Yummy!) Braised Shark's Fin Soup With Crab Meat

(One of my favorites!)Braised Abalone & Giant MushroomWith Vegetable

House Special Lobster (Mmmm, finger lickin good! but you gotta be willing to get a little messy.)

(My ABSOLUTE favorite!) Prince Seafood Peking Duck (yummy bun!)

Steamed Live Whole Fish

Braised Noodle With Abalone Sauce (Abalone sauce? No wonder this was so good!)

Birthday Mango Pudding!

And last but not least, a surprise! A very special lucky pastry! My girlfriend said that eating it would bring long life and prosperity. Well, you can imagine how fast I grabbed me one of these. I've never eaten this pastry before, it almost looks too pretty to eat! (this was not included in the menu - she must have ordered this special for us)

...though, a few of us had a laugh because it looked oddly like a cute little bum! :) I hope I didn't just comment my long life and prosperity away with that little statement...

***Our Menu***
$438 (10 person)
1. Prince Seafood Combination Platter (not pictured - sorry, missed it)
2. Pan Fried Scallops
3. Deep Fried Stuffed Crab Claw
4. Braised Shark's Fin Soup With Crab Meat
5. Braised Abalone & Giant MushroomWith Vegetable
6. House Special Lobster
7. Prince Seafood Peking Duck
8. Steamed Live Whole Fish
9. Braised Noodle With Abalone Sauce
10.Mango Pudding

A side note: We were seated in a separate room just off the main dining room and like I mentioned before - we were SERVED. Most of my pictures were of just my plate because they would take the main plate off to the side (after first introducing the dish) to serve it up individually to each of us. Wow - it felt like royalty I tell ya. :) It was a great experience.

Visit Prince Seafood Restaurant

Mmm, year old cake...

2007-10-03T09:17:00.000-07:00

There's nothing like looking foward to a year old cake to help you look forward to your next year of marriage. hahaha - sounds so solemn doesn't it?! But on the contrary - the anticipation of eating that thing somehow makes celebrating 1 year of marriage fun and even DARING! I actually think that husbands look forward to this one part of the celebration as if they were participating in some Fear Factor episode or something of that sort. Either way - we did the said tradition and though the photos aren't as interesting really, I just had to share this experience; especially for those married folk who can sympathize with our tastebuds in having done this tradtition before.

The Cake Box from the hotel - never saw it until today since my mom had wrapped the box up in brown packing paper...looks nice! Maybe this won't be so bad?

Surprise! What? What is that brown stuff?

It's the flowers! They're still on the cake? They actually don't look so bad structurally after being frozen for so long. But ew - better pluck them out.

Ready to Cut! Slicing off any part of the cake that touched the flowers, just to be safe. :)

Cutting off the sides in case of freezer burn...

Hmm, now what?

Taking the centermost pieces sounds like a good idea to me...

Tadaa!

Someone told me that a survey taken of people eating their wedding cake showed that those who drank some kind of alcohol with their meal or while they were eating their cake tended to NOT get sick...so Port it is!

Wanna try some of this?

All in all, it wasn't half bad. My husband said the cake was a little dry and the filling a little mushy but not as bad as we had thought. It was actualy, *gasp!*, edible. :) We actually both ate our pieces of cake, however, in true traditional fashion, we wisely threw the rest out. :P

Happy Birthday J!

2007-08-29T10:58:00.000-07:00

Since I can't post to her blog from work, then I'll post my belated wishes here. :)

Happy Birthday J!

It's Lobster Fest time again...

2007-08-17T10:04:00.001-07:00

Lobster Fest at the Port of Los Angeles

Lobster Festival in Redondo Beach

Totally wish I could go to this...

2007-08-17T08:52:00.000-07:00

Joy of Sake

Even Geeks have a love for culinary food...

2007-08-16T09:42:00.000-07:00

A little excerpt from the World of Warcraft...my hubby showed me that even geeks can be culinary...

Looking a little closer will show you something yummy! How I love them truffles! Now, if my hubby could cook me up some truffle delights in the real world - that would be faaabulous!

"Deep Fry my deep fried and put some cheese on it please...."

2007-08-15T09:18:00.000-07:00

My first visit to the Orange County Fair and what a deep fried experience that was!

Boy was it ever hot...and a little crowded but the heat tapered off later and we had a great time. I was really excited to try, for the first time, deep fried twinkies and oreos! There have been mixed reviews amongst my friends...though the one really bad review I won't really count since it was from a friend who was forced to eat 6 deep fried twinkies at his bachelor party as one of his humiliation tasks. I digress...though my emphasis before going to the fair was on the deep fried Oreo Cookie...the winner?...the deep fried Australian potatoes with cheese only on top. (no ranch, skip the ranch!) That was "THE BEST!". I'm so glad our friend B recommended it or I would seriously never had thought to try it. In addition to the fried stuff, there were some other things like the smoked Turkey legs! Ahhh - reminders of the Renaissance Faire (okay, go ahead and laugh...I only went once). Enough talking, here are those pictures I promised eons ago. But be warned...looking might prompt eating and eating 100% deep fried is not for the weak stomached! Enjoy!
Yum-e Smoked Turkey Legs!

Monkeys for my friend J.

Fair staples:

The Australian Deep Fried Potatoes! (below)
<--Well, then I gotta buy it now!
Gotta have drinks and we opted for the refillable:

Our one ride at the fair:

The deep fried collection starts here!:
<--deep fried snickers.
The very elusive deep fried booth buried at the back of the fair:

Deep Fried Twinkies on the left (one with strawberry topping and the other chocolate), deep fried Oreos at the top with chocolate topping and sprinkles, deep fried twinkie to the right (better eaten hot I think, we got it from another booth and by now it was a bit colder) and a Raspberry filled Krispy Kreme donut chicken sandwich...save your money and spend it on more deep fried Australian Potatoes...WITH CHEESE!

Yum-e herbs! Yum-e...herbs...???

2007-07-30T14:30:00.000-07:00

Yummy yummy experience at Pasta Pomodoro at the Bella Terra Mall in Huntington Beach. Just meeting some girlfriends from work after what seemed like YEARS since we last met at the mall for dinner. And what a nice little surprise it was. After running around to the Cheesecake Factory and refusing to wait 2 hours for a table, we crossed the street over to Pasta Pomodoro. One of my girlfriends had eaten there once before and swore by it so we went on in. "10-15 minute wait?" NO PROBLEM!

Funny how my girlfriend turned to me and said, "So what INTERESTING thing are you going to order today?" I was like, "whah?" I guess apparently, she's used to me ordering some crazy combination of things rather than the typical 1 entree with salad and drink. And by golly, she was RIGHT! I took one look at the appetizer menu and fell in love with their Butternut Squash Ravioli and Asparagus. Not being too hungry, and the fact that I was surrounded by all size 0 (more like size -1) women at the time, I didn't want to eat too much and so instead of ordering an entree, I just went with those two appetizers and decided to leave some room for dessert. To quench my thirst, I thought a nice glass of wine would be really nice after the long drive; and since we'd probably be shuttin' the place down with conversation I thought it'd be just fine. Low and behold, after asking the waitress if she had any wine recommendations, she apologizes for not showing me the wine flights selection that they do just on Fridays (which it was!) and so I immediately ordered a flight of the Riesling, Pinot Grigio and Sauvignon Blanc.

Boy, was I ever happy with my order. The butternut squash was so yummy! Topped with amaretti crumbs (reminds me of Giada De Laurentiis) and decorated with these tasty herb crisps!

I've never had herbs like this before! they were like these little sweet and salty chips, but they were...sage! This will defnitely be my next experiment! I asked the waitress how it was done and she said that the sage was not dusted with salt or sugar but that they were just boiled first and then baked in the oven along with the ravioli. I don't know about that...all the girls had a try and agreed - there's somethin' going on with something sweet and salty in there. Well, I'll just have to try it and see. But wow - I'd totally order this dish again and good news is that they serve it as an entree also. I'm bringing hubby here for dinner sometime!

The asparagus was excellent. The stalks were of the thin variety, but I didn't mind it much due to the cheese that was shredded on top. I know NOTHING of cheese and I wish I knew more becauswe then I'd make asparagus like this EVERYDAY. (picture missing, sorry.)

The wine flight...now that was fun. Getting to try Riesling, Pinot Grigio AND Sauvignon Blanc all for just $6.50, that is one heck of a deal. It seems that you get about a glass and a half's worth...a typical glass of wine costs at least $7 or more. (I'm used to drinking reds, so maybe the price is cheaper for white)

Short visit but sweet. Amazing Butternut Squash Ravioli, yummy asparagus side dish and cheap wine flights, what more could a girl ask for? Oh yeah...dessert...my bad....

Similar recipe perhaps? (for the butternut squash)

Everyone loves...

2007-07-30T14:17:00.001-07:00

...FREE cookbooks!

Autumn Omakase
All About Apples

I have not had a chance to look at these yet; I'm just passin' on the news. How I never came across this site before, I do not know. I love the vastness of the culinary Internet!

Vegas Baby!

2007-07-30T14:15:00.000-07:00

I've been looking for a list of Vegas restaurant recommendations since making our plans final for our "2nd honeymoon" at the Venetian 2 weeks and have not been successful until now...

How to Kill a perfectly good steak...

2007-07-30T13:44:00.000-07:00

Step 1. Buy some really expensive steak (aged and everything) from your local grocer.

Step 2. Do some research on the Internet about how to cook a rib eye steak in your kitchen and not on a grill.

Step 3. Take advice from company that sells steak about how to cook a rib eye.

Step 4. Follow directions to the "T" for medium rare steak, careful to measure the steak thickness and find cooking times on chart. Cross reference times on chart to other charts on the Internet because I 'don't trust the steak people'.

Step 5. Don't feel right about the directions but follow them anyway.

Step 6. Take out steak and have an ill feeling about how it looks but plate it anyway.

Step 7. Make a fancy sauce out of the juices in the pan just in case the steak is totally messed up and you need to cover the steak with a butter/wine sauce.

Step 8. Feed the steak to your significant other and watch them try to smile while they manage to only eat 1/3 of the steak. Notice your jaw start to lock after just eating 3 pieces of your own meat that's obviously overdone.

Step 9. Add tons of butter/wine sauce to your steak.

Step 10. Promise never to cook steak like that again and convince significant other to buy a grill so we can follow other Internet directions on grilling instead. (<---have I not learned????)

Step 11. Rename post title to "How to convince your significant other to buy a grill..."

Crustacean allows take home!

2007-07-26T17:57:00.000-07:00

Ah - got another chance to eat at Crustacean for a girl's nite out dinner and it was delish as usual! The Garlic Noodles are still THE BEST I've ever had. Got to hand it to the women of Crustacean and their secret recipes!

Anyway - the good news that I am posting is that the policy for ordering "food to take home" has changed. (Take home...not take out) Yay! Before you could not order an extra side of Garlic Noodles to go which totally sucked! But this time - the waiter said that "she loosened up on the rules a bit and allows it now." My husband should thank me for I brought him home a fresh cooked batch (which I ended up taking 1/2 to work for lunch the next day). LOL - okay, so I thought of myself for a little bit, do you blame me?! Try those noodles and then try to judge me!

Mmmm, what excuse can I come up with to visit again...

The French Laundry

2007-06-12T10:47:00.000-07:00

One of my goals finally achieved! I got the opportunity to eat at The French Laundry in Yountville, Napa Valley. I can't really say whether it's "overrated" or "over-priced" because for one, I went for the experience as well as the food and two, I've only done a tasting dinner once before. How can I be a judge of anything? All I can tell you is what I experienced and how everything tasted to me...and the latter I will preface by saying I am totally biased due to some of my personal tastes. With that said, I begin to tell you about my very fun, cool and FULL experience I had at The French Laundry.

The French Laundry, as you approach it from the street, looks like quaint dark brown brick and wood building with vines creeping along the sides. You'll miss it if you don't look carefully. The only sign is a softly lit one on the retaining wall bordering the front of the restaurant. (I'm glad we drove by earlier in the day so we would know where it was because we did miss it at first!)

If you're looking for the garden, you'll need to look across the street. Unfortunately, we went late at night so we didn't get to look at it. Walking around the front of the house to the entrance you'll see a few tables set out in the yard area to the side of the house set with wine glasses ready for you to sit yourself down and enjoy the outdoors for a bit...but again, it was too late for us to make use of it. From the side of the house, you get a glimpse of the kitchen through windows of what seems like a separate single story building that is actually connected to the restaurant. Wish I could have lingered out there a while more but I wasn't sure if they liked to be "watched" or not...and we were also too eager to see what it was like inside. As you enter, there is a nice cozy parlor with non other than the Bouchon and The French Laundry Cookbooks out on the table. I wanted to peruse through them while we were waiting (since we had gotten there early) but they sat us almost immediately.

When we walked into the dining room, we realized that the main dining room had about 8-10 tables and most of the 2 person tables were to the outer edges with the 4 person tables all to the center. I was surprised then as the waiter took us into a small little "nook" just off to the right of the main dining room. This room, I believe, was made to look like a little wine cave with stone ambiance on the ceiling and a view through a little window into their wine cellar. There were only 3 tables in there; one 4 person table and 2-2 person tables. I was VERY excited at this point - whoever had given up this table causing the table for 2 to be thrown up on OpenTable.com must either have been very important or very darn lucky. But we ended up lucky in the end to have been seated at that table because it was great! Even the lighting was a little dimmer in this little nook and it felt really romantic.

We were seated at our table and immediately I was happy with tulips as their choice of flower (my favorite) for their floral touch and our napkins tucked into an old fashioned clothes pin tying in the "Laundry" theme; EXACTLY like the front of Thomas Keller's Cookbook of the same name.

Finally, to the food! They had started us off with Amuse bouche, a set of appetizer or starter "finger food" as the waiter explained to us. Typically food served before the actual courses of the menu. Because they are Amuse bouche, these tasty morsels are not listed on the menu and so we can only make a guess as to what they were since our memory was already blurring after the 6th or 7th course later. The "ice cream" cone appetizer was a mini sesame cone filled with a creme fraice type concoction with (I'm guessing now) a type of caviar on top (not sturgeon since it was very orange in color) because it was salty. Good salty mind you. It was a faaabulous combination! Wish I could have had more! Next to it in the bowl came cheese filled pastry puffs. Oh - they were good! So yummy just out of the oven, the cheese just melted into the puff and it was delicious.

Next we had "Oysters and Pearls", a "Sabayon" of Pearl Tapioca with Beau Soleil Oysters and White Sturgeon Caviar. This was one of our favorites overall. This 1st course was excellent! Great texture, nice balance of saltiness and creaminess...it was so silky. Again, this was one I wish I could have a big bowl of. I couldn't get enough of it! The oyster was so delicate and the caviar tasted as good as it was expensive. The Sabayon at the bottom (I don't get Sabayon a lot) was really nice and went well with the salty caviar and oyster. The sauce was a buttery layer that sat atop the Sabayon. We were very VERY excited about the rest that was to come after having this 1st course!

For the second course, we had our choice of "Salad of White Asparagus" (Poached Field Rhubarb, Garden Mache and Black Truffle "Coulis") or Moulard Duck "Foie Gras Au Torchon" (White Peach Relish, Hazelnut Puree, Pickled Ramps and Red Mustard Greens). Well, since there were two of us, we split our choices. Since my husband hates asparagus (poor guy), I took the Salad and he ordered the Foie Gras. Of course, it doesn't matter since we made our plan to share everything anyway. I was excited about the White Asparagus since I LOVE asparagus and I was really looking forward to the Black Truffle Coulis. The asparagus was very light and the rhubarb kind of sweet. The black truffle coulis was a sauce swished over the plate and tasted great with the veggies. Wish I had more of the sauce actually.

Though it was good - it could not compare to the show stopping Foie Gras! This was also one of our favorites since it was so interactive in addition to being sooooo yummy. The presentation of the Foie Gras was very nice accompanied with 3 silver dishes of specialty salts. One salt being a french 40,000 year old salt; very fine with dark and light bits in it. The second being a rock salt from France and the third being a red rock salt from Kauai. (I think I have this in my cupboard actually. We Hawaii people love our rock salt and Alae rock salt (or red rock salt) is common in Hawaii cooking households these days) Also served with the Foie Gras was freshly made brioche. Mmmmm. The direction we got was to spoon a bit of each salt onto our plates first.hen slice off a bit of the Foie Gras, top with a pinch of one type of salt and savor. Repeat with the other salts and see how your taste buds like the contrast of the different flavors. Each salt brought a different level of contrast to the Foie Gras and my favorite was the 40,000 year old salt. Since I had my asparagus, my husband ate the brioche with the Foie Gras that was left over after we tasted to our heart's delight the Foie Gras with the salts. The French Laundry is very particular about their brioche and replaced our original brioche with a plate of new ones so that we would have warm brioche to eat with the Foie Gras (I guess we took our time doing our salt comparisons. :) That was very nice of them to do.

The next course we again had two choices and again we ordered both. This course was the fish course and consisted of "Crispy-Ckin Fillet of Pacific Suzuki (Spring Garlic "Confit," San Marzano Tomato "Compote," Nicoise Olive Crumbs and Golden Squash Puree) and "Tartare" of Japanese Hamachi (Cucumber "Gelee," Red Radish, Haas Avocado, Kumquats and Cilantro Shoots). I had the Suzuki...it was ok. I think I enjoyed the flavors of the puree and compote and found them more interesting than the fish itself.

However, the Tartare my husband ad was very nice! The Cucumber Gelee was so interesting! The Hamachi was very nice...not exactly Tartare (hence the quotation marks) which I liked actually because we got to eat fresher tasting cubed Hamachi instead of something that was chopped up and mixed with too much sauce to notice. I liked it this way and with the Cucumber Gelee and silky avocado ribbons - it was a very excellent combination. And of course, why not?! The whole entree was a relative of the California Roll with Hamachi instead of the traditional tuna. Loved this idea - taking a common food and basically turning it inside out. And the presentation was so nice and bright with the color of the Gelee and the ribbons of Avocado.

I've been waiting to say this...I had a PRETZEL at The French Laundry! Ofcourse, not the kind of pretzel you get at the fair, but it's a pretzel non the less and I was tickled to be offered it. It was a nice lightly salty bread between courses that I enjoyed like a kid at the fair. :) (sorry, the picture is blurry)

The next course (our 4th) was "Beet and Leek" (Maine Lobster Tail "Pochee au Beurre Doux" with King Richard Leeks, "Pommes Maxim's" and Red Beet Essence). Such a pretty presentation with the Pommes Maxim's sitting on top. I had to take a second picture to give you a view of the yummy lobster and beet essence underneath. Oh!, and did this taste as good as it looked. Not only was it lobster but it was lobster sitting in this heavenly, slightly sweet, delicious red beet reduction sauce. I am looking up this recipe for sure! This sauce was excellent! I was hoping for more pieces of lobster so that I could run it through the sauce. Now me and lobster - we go way back from when my mom was craving lobster when she was pregnant with me so for me to get distracted by lobster with a sauce, that's something.

The next course (our 5th) reminded me of breakfast. :) Since we had a choice again, we ordered one of each of the "Wolfe Ranch White Quail" (Morel Mushrooms, Roasted Romaine Lettuce, Corn Bread Pudding and "Foie Gras Mignonette") and the "Bacon and Eggs" ("Rouelle" of All Day-Braised "Tete de Cocon," Soft-Poached Quail Egg, Frisee Lettuce and "Sauce Gribiche"). You get all that? Though the titles and descriptions sounded so yummy, unfortunately this was one of our least favorite courses. I think I'm not that big on quail because I should have been awed. Though I wasn't, the quail was melt in your mouth...see the piece on the left? That piece absolutely just melted. And I loved the morel mushroom since I love mushrooms and I don't get to eat this variety very often. Doesn't the Foie Gras sauce look so yummy? It was. :) The corn bread was an interesting accompaniment. I know it's probably normal to have it - but my taste buds thought it odd. But, it was yummy none the less.

My husband liked his Bacon and Eggs. It was just okay for me. I think I wasn't in the mood for Pork. The presentation was nice with the pork being stuffed into the center of something that was deep fried. Looked like a little tater to me :). Hey, I just looked up "Tete de Cochon" and it means Head from Hog. Y'know, I never had pigs head before...

Our next course was Snake River Farm "Calotte de Beouf Grillee" (Braised Beef Cheeks, Thumbelina Carrots, Globe Artichokes and "Sauce Bordelaise"). Me and meat, thanks to my Dad, get a long very very well. I loved the slice of meat in this dish, it was served just how I like it. My husband, being a lover of ribeye thought it okay. I was really looking forward to the beef cheek and it was very soft and tender. (though the flavor reminded me of something I eat at dim sum - I'll fill in here if and when I remember what it was!)

Our next course was a goat cheese course. "Blanc de Bleu du Rizet" (Goat Cheese with Fennel Bulb, Prune Puree and Watercress Leaves). The cheese was sooo heavy. By this time we had gone through 6 courses and this was our 7th. I know it's hard to believe from the size of the portions that we could be full, but eating 7 of these little plates in succession is more filling than you think. I was so ashamed I could only eat 1 out of the 3 pieces that was given to me! I was so sad that I was a little mad. "Why do they serve this now and here? Not even my Cab can cut through this to help my taste buds." It was very good cheese but at this point in time, we just could not finish it. I felt bad when they came to take them away with so much still left on our plates but what could we do? I'm sure this is normal to serve it here - maybe the purpose wasn't to eat it all?

Ah! now THIS was nice. The 8th course was so refreshing! It was "Glace de Fruits Excotiques" (Pineapple "Granite," Lilikoi and Coconut Sauce. I am partial to Passion fruit and am happy to see almost every restaurant taking advantage of this fruit these days. I was very happy to see it on the menu and was looking forward to it. In contrast to the cheese, I LOVED this as simple as it was. And how about that plate?! Gonna find me some for sure - so nice for entertaining.

Our 9th course, dessert, consisted of "Composition de Chocolate Italien" (Amedei Gianduja Chocolate" "Creme Patissier," oscano Nut Brownie and Nougat Glace") and "Summer Pudding" (French Laundry Garden Lemon Verbena Ice Cream and Summer Berry "Compote") I wish I had pure Nougat instead of a glace. I LOVE nougat and was looking forward to a stronger flavor there. The other cylinder in the picture tasted of hazelnut which was the Gianduja chocolate. Hmmm, I wanted a stronger flavor here too...I think they went light on purpose, but I guess I wasn't reading the menu well and hoping for a whopping of chocolate and nougat. I should pay more attention. My husband's Summer Pudding was topped with a foamy concoction which made it fun. Each piece of the "pudding" by itself isn't that great, but together, they worked well and was a pretty refreshing dessert. I think as a dessert lover - I had high (which equalled "rich") expectations of this dish which made me judge it unfailrly. Looking back, these were delightfully light and let you taste the elements without being too rich and over powering.

To our eyes delights (& moans of our full stomachs), following our 9 courses was "Mignardises".

Mignardise. (i) Decorative pastry puff, (ii) Small dainty dish.
---International Dictionary of Food & Cooking

Small and dainty for sure, we were presented wth a small pot of Panna Cotta and a pretty little dish of creme brule. After 9 courses, thank goodness these dishes were small! Even though my stomach couldn't possibly handle anything more, I had to order a coffee to help get through these "small dainty dishes".

And just when you think it's over, more "Mignardises"...

"At a sophisticated meal in France, an assortment of petits fours (sometimes known as mignardises) may be served either with or after the dessert."
---Larousse Gastronomique

Sweet Cigar shaped confections and Chocolate Covered and Sugar Powdered Macadamia Nuts followed. I think I could only eat one cigar and being from Hawaii, I skipped the macadamia nuts.

And can you believe it? There was STILL more...

ABOUT MIGNARDISE
The term mignardise, as applied to the culinary world, means an assortment of small, dainty confections. This assortment is generally composed of petits fours in the larger sense: tiny decorated cakes, specialty cookies, bonbons and sugared fruits. In other words, a plate of identical petits fours confections (no matter how ornate) would not be considered a mignardise. A mixed presentation of small, decorated specialty pastries, cookies and candies would qualify as mignardise.
---http://www.foodtimeline.org/foodcookies.html
© Lynne Olver 2000

The presentation of this next set of Mignardise was a silver container consisting of a tier of chocolate truffles (one milk, one dark and something else), a tier of wrapped nougat and nut confections and a top tier of wrapped fruit confections.

And of course, this was not the end. The final ending of the night came with the bill and a bag of shortbread cookies to take with us tied with ribbon adorned with the restaurant's logo.

All in all - an expensive night but what an exquiste night. One of those I will truly remember for years to come. Was it worth it? For me, being able to experience it, taste it and share it all with you, yes it was. For my husband, he was happy just to see me happy. :) Hope you liked sharing in the experience too.

Happy Thanksgiving!...In May?

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Yes, you read that right. "Happy Thanksgiving!" Well, it's actually "Happy FAKE Thanksgiving"...it all started with a frozen turkey and no room in the freezer. LOL - my girlfriend J had the BRILLIANT idea to do a themed lunch/dinner of Thanksgiving food so she could get rid of a frozen turkey that was taking up too much space in her freezer. And what a great idea it was...unfortunately I forgot my camera to document the whole affair. But don't fret, just visit her blog for the full story, pictures included!

It's so totally fun having foodie friends,...THANKS J (& her family and friends) for an awesome Fake Thanksgiving!

The French Laundry at Home

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I haven't read through this blog yet but it looks fantastic! It's all about a cook who has taken on the French Laundry Cookbook at home! I already love it because it has very nice pictures. Thanks to conversations with J, I was turned onto this site: French Laundry at Home. Check it out!

Make...

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...an Easter Bunny Cake this Easter!

Craving...

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The Godiva Biscuits (layered with hazelnut chocolate) that's sitting on my file cabinet. Yummy!

My healthy list of comfort foods...

2007-04-06T15:16:00.000-07:00

...call me crazy - but I have adopted a new set of comfort foods and they include the likes of spinach, black beans and lots of whole grain stuffs. Hey, to eat the things I absolutely LOVE to eat like Garlic Noodles, BJ's Pizzookie's and the tons of other things that I've written about, I need to eat healthy sometimes. I've learned to deal with eating low fat yogurt, whole grain oatmeal (<--wow, now this is a stretch for me) and more fruits during the day as snacks. But along the way of eating healthier, friends have turned me on to some things that I actually started craving! Like for some reason, I really like how black beans and brown rice with some tofu (fried in a little bit of olive oil) tastes...but that might just be me. But here's a couple of other things that I've tried (and have tried on my hubby too!)and he thought it wasn't half bad that I've incoporated in my weekly menus:

1. Spinach and Chicken Wraps using whole wheat tortillas (low/no fat from Trader Joe's) and olive hummus (50 calories or less per serving). I was very VERY skeptical when my friend offered me a wrap at lunch once but I was pleasantly surprised. The spinach is pretty mild and I love the taste of chicken and I've got to tell you - the olive hummus was the thing that held it all together taste wise. Regular hummus doesn't quite do the trick. To me, the olive hummus brings out the flavor of the chicken in the wrap. Goes great! I just boil the chicken and ofcourse, it's skinless with fat trimmed.

2. SKINNY COW! LOVE these ice cream sandwiches. Yes - it's soft serve kind of ice cream...but hey, if it allows me to eat regular ice cream occassionally without the guilt, I'll eat it! Plus, the cookie part of it has some good fiber for ya, albiet a small amount. I buy mine from costco but if you don't have the room in your freezer for all the sandwiches, I'd just buy some from the store.

3. Did I say Hummus? I know I mentioned it in the wrap already - but regular hummus or any other flavored variety at 50 calories per 2 Tablespoons can be a low calorie yummy addition to a boring vegetable snack in your day. If you like carrots (baby carrots are cute to eat and easy to tote and you don't have to cut them!), these are great for dipping into hummus. 2 Tablespoons is a lot for dipping actually. I went through a small bag of baby carrots with it. You can also dip your chips into it. (see next item)

4. Now - not that I crave these but the fact that I can eat 15 of them is what's appealing to me (totalling 130 cal). It's TLC crackers. (Okay, did not try this one on hubby and I don't think he'll like these AT ALL!) They're whole grain and really hit the spot when I'm just craving all sorts of crap that I shouldn't be eating. But I've grown to even crave these suckers...but I'm wierd. So if you don't really think they're all that - dip em' in hummus. :)

Okay - not much of a great post for people who love the sweet stuffs or fatty stuffs...but just thought I'd share. On another note - there are things you can do to continue eating the things you like but taking out some of the fat like:

If you get a chocolate craving, try melting a smaller amount of dark chocolate that you would normally eat and dip a whole bunch of strawberries in it. Or eat strawberries with bites of chocolate (but eat a smaller amount that you normally eat).

If you like cooking with butter, try substituting chicken broth for 1/2 or even just a 1/4 of the amount required and lower some of your fat intake. (low sodium, low fat broth ofcourse!) Works great for picatta!

I'm going to experiment with low fat/fat free sour cream and buttermilk to help lower my use of mayo in things like Furikake Salmon or Cornflake Crusted Salmon. (I'll let you know how it goes)

Don't get the wrong idea about this blog...this ISN'T a health food blog! Watching my "routine" or everyday eating allows me to enjoy the things that I write about with less of the guilt and I wanted to share the healthy things I found that have tasted good to me and that have miraculously worked their way into my eating schedule and habits.