Sliders

Yay for homemade sliders! But I think I had my fill of making these myself and will just go to In-N-Out and McDonalds next time. The only thing about getting that fast food is that it's not always fast. I've waited half an hour or more for the drive-thru lines before.

Sushi

Sushi night from our small group...

Dingles

The Dingles were having a house party! This crevice used to hold our CRT TV. They tried to jump through the opening and this was the result of those attempts, with Macro-Dingle looking on.

Veggies

Just some of the veggies I sauteed... Not much going on here besides noting that I actually felt like eating this.

More Stuffing

More stuffing... This time I utilized the sausage that was sitting in my freezer, and a bunch of diced veggies. It was good at first but I got tired of this craving really fast. I still have a box of unused stuffing sitting in the kitchen.

BBQ Tri-Tip With Plum Stuffing

Here is the tri-tip making another appearance, this time alongside more plum stuffing. The stuffing's a different batch from before... I didn't throw in as many plums as last time, and there's BBQ sauce in this batch rather than the chicken meat/stock. Yay for hearty food. Where are the veggies? Oh well there's vitamin C and fiber from the plums.

BBQ Tri-Tip With Vegetables

Tri-tip was on sale for $1.88/lb, or something like that. I bought a couple slabs. I forgot that they distinguish between trimmed and untrimmed, so the ones on sale were untrimmed and super fatty. Oh well. Here's the tri-tip in BBQ sauce (compliments of the slow cooker) with some sparse veggies.

Taiwanese Amoy Noodles With Egg

Another craving... those Taiwanese "mee-swah" noodles with eggs. I think traditionally, these noodles are eaten with pork hocks in soup during one's birthday. Also, I've seen these noodles mixed with oysters in a dry dish. I prefer it this way, with eggs!

Gold Kiwis

Luckily, I didn't get food adversions to fruit. One of my sudden favorites became gold kiwi. Check out the difference in size between these little guys. The one on the left is from Ranch 99 and was super cute, like a huge egg. The little dinky one is from Ralphs. These are sooo good! I wonder if they taste any better in New Zealand... probably.

Chicken With Plum and Sage Stuffing

Got a huge craving for stuffing, of all things, so bought a box of it and tossed it into this concoction of plums and chicken breasts. It turned out pretty interesting but a bit tart. By the way this marks the beginning of my usage of the new camera (stupid Nikon one broke barely a year after I bought it... just long enough for the warranty to not be valid). Now I have this Canon one that I got from an Amazon gold box deal (thanks Frank for the heads up). Hopefully it lasts... I don't see a "food" setting but hopefully the pics all turn out okay...

The Dingle Family

This is the Dingle family (well I guess minus the dad and the grandpa and the wild cousin). Maybe these are just the Dingle brothers. Either way, they are some of my fav stuffed animals as of late and the object of quite possibly my last post, at least for awhile until I get a new camera (the current one I have broke.... complains about lens error). Until then, au revoir!

White Chocolate Macadamia Nut Blondies

For my coworker's 70th birthday, I decided to experiment with the cake meal I had bought earlier. So... I made "Passover" brownies (not shown) and blondies (pictured). The blondies came out fine, with lots of macadamia nuts and white chocolate, but the brownies were badly botched... Somehow they never evened out and I kept baking them, thinking I needed to do so until the evening out occurred, but no such luck. I finally removed them from the oven after like an hour and out came biscotti =(.

Where Do We Come From? What Are We? Where Are We Going?

I made this collage several years ago during a New Life women's event. It was supposed to be loosely just a collection of images and/or words that represents us in some way, whether it be our favorite things, or characteristics, etc. Now the title of this post is actually the name of a painting by Paul Gauguin which I find intriguing. You can read a short blurb about it here. I bring it up because I think the title can apply to my collage as well, in that each image represents some aspect of me... Scenic and dreamy landscapes, organized hangers, dogs, colorful vegetables, elegant romance, fine art, fishermen in a boat, nuts, staying healthy and hydrated, family, my home state, ice cream... You can't really make out the words in the middle, but it says, "leap of faith" and sits so appropriately at the very center of the collage...

A few have already discovered paradise. Will you be next?

They say the grass is always greener on the other side.

Fleming's Steakhouse

My project manager took the entire team out to Fleming's Steakhouse for a milestone celebration. Talk about setting the bar high! I didn't have my camera so this is from my friend's camera, and after he scooped some veggies onto his plate. The main course was beef wellington (in this case, petite filet mignon wrapped in puff pastry), which was the best part, followed by this huge Tahitian vanilla bean creme brulee topped with fresh berries. The appetizers, salad, and sides were all delicious as well. Yay for splurge =).

Just Strawberries and Blueberries

This is pure frozen strawberries and frozen blueberries blended into a thick smoothie. I was getting tired of adding 140 calories of super sweet pineapple juice to each smoothie, so I decided to forego the liquid and blend after the frozen berries had softened somewhat. And voila! This is essentially pureed berries! Very pure =P. I do like Jamba Juice's Vibrant Blueberry quite a bit but you can't compare... that's got soymilk, yogurt, and some other stuff in it, where this one is simply fruit.

Cantaloupe Juice

Too much cantaloupe led to my blending it down into a frothy juice. Very refreshing and sweet! It's reminiscent of the fresh watermelon juice I had at Bobaland in Rancho (don't get the watermelon juice from Trader Joes... it's horrendous).

Red Bean Pastries

My mom knows how to make just about anything Chinese, including these red bean pastries. Usually, if it's for me, we end up altering the ingredients and ratios to make the recipe healthier. In this case, the red beans had very little sugar and no oil, the flour was part whole wheat and spelt, and we did not use that much oil to make the flaky layers. These round little things are so cute, and very hearty and satisfying. I really like the dough! Of course, every once in awhile, I might indulge and get the super-buttery treats from a bakery, but that's just once in awhile...

Baked French Toast

I had all this bread leftover and just had to get rid of it... So bought some milk and eggs, looked up French toast recipes, and settled on this baked version, except I kept the toast whole as opposed to making them into small sticks. I completely left out the maple syrup, and used baking spray instead of butter. Conclusion? This thing is too sweet, even without the maple syrup! And also, I should have used butter because the baking spray totally does not contribute to the flavor =(. The toast came out pretty eggy and not soggy enough, in my opinion. Part of it may have been due to my using whole grain extra fiber bread, as opposed to the usual challah...

Hot Dogs

He he he! There was this USO (United Service Organizations) fundraiser at work from which I bought several beanie babies, including these two cute daschund twins. One is from a Valentine's collection and says "I LONG 4 U" on its side, and the other is basically a hot dog in a bun, complete with ketchup and mustard. How could you pass these up? The breed I plan to get in the future is actually not this one, but probably some sort of terrier mix, or a Westie, or possibly a Maltese mix...

Strawberry Smoothie

Strawberries are in season! I bought a bunch and froze them all so as to make refreshing smoothies later. My hand blender is not that powerful though, so I had to dice the berries into really small pieces. That was time consuming! For this particular smoothie, I just mixed strawberries and milk, but another simple go-to combination is strawberries with 100% pineapple juice (comes in convenient containers from TJ).

Avocado On Toast

Avocado lovers need no explanation. You really don't need much else besides lots of avocado on some whole grain toast, although it's also great to have this with some egg, or rotisserie chicken or carved turkey breast, or roast beef?

Chocolate Chip Cookies

These are the standard chocolate chip cookies I make on occasion. A friend in college introduced me to them (my first time baking cookies from scratch!) and I was really impressed by the cake-like texture, slightly eggy taste, and how they weren't too sweet or oily. This is pretty much my "go to" recipe for a cookie base, where I vary the mix-ins. I've done it with white chocolate and macadamia nuts, peanut butter chips, chocolate mint, and some others I can't remember. Anyway, here you have it (I usually end up making a bigger batch by adding a third of everything... makes the measurements easier. And for some reason they usually take longer than 10-12 minutes to bake... maybe my cookie dough balls are too big...):

3/4 c. butter, softened
1 1/2 c. brown sugar
3 eggs
1 1/2 tsp. vanilla
1 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. baking soda
3 c. flour
1 pkg. chocolate chips
1/2 c. walnuts, chopped (optional)

Cream together butter and brown sugar until well mixed. Add eggs and vanilla. In a separate bowl  mix together flour, salt and baking soda. Add to butter mixture and stir thoroughly. If a little dry add a few drops of water. Mix in chocolate chips and walnuts. Drop by teaspoonful onto cookie sheet. Bake at 350 degree oven for 10 to 12 minutes.

Triple Chocolate Espresso Bean Cookies

I had these dark chocolate covered espresso beans from Peet's and wanted to use them up without actually eating them all, so I thought of making cookies with them. Googling around, I found this recipe and just went for it. My only complaint was that the texture of the espresso beans was a little too much like egg shells =(. The flavor was fantastic though!

Einkorn Penne Pasta

I'd never heard of einkorn grain before, but apparently it's another one of those ancient grains. This one is very comparable to the bronze cut semolina penne I usually make for Kevin. Usually, whole grain stuff falls apart easily and tastes obviously different, but this one fooled him! For me, I drizzled some walnut oil, sprinkled on some walnuts and herbs to garnish, and enjoyed away! For Kevin, I topped it with marinara sauce and meatballs.

The Izaka-ya By Katsu-ya at Manhattan Beach

This whole thing was $9.80 at The Izaka-ya By Katsu-ya at Manhattan Beach. You get 12 kinds of sushi, 4 spicy tuna rolls, 4 California rolls, a mini udon, and a Japanese salad. The last time we came here, the $9.80 special consisted of miso-marinated black cod, the 8 sushi rolls, Japanese salad, and miso soup. Pretty good for a Manhattan Beach restaurant! The catch is that only the first 15 people get to order this weekday lunch special, so there's always a line before the place opens up for lunch.

Lavender and Walnut Oil Sprouted Grain Pasta

This penne is from Food for Life's Ezekiel 4:9 sprouted grain line. Now this one was obvious as far as being totally different from regular pasta. The penne tubes frayed easily, and the taste and texture were completely different! I liked it, but I had to eat this myself (Kevin wouldn't like it), drizzled with walnut oil and topped with culinary lavender buds for a twist. The ingredients are: Organic Sprouted Whole Wheat, Organic Sprouted Whole Barley, Organic Sprouted Whole Millet, Organic Sprouted Whole Lentils, Organic Sprouted Whole Soybeans, Organic Sprouted Whole Spelt. Curious as to what the verse says? Here you go: "Take wheat and barley, beans and lentils, millet and spelt; put them in a storage jar and use them to make bread for yourself. You are to eat it during the 390 days you lie on your side." (Ekeziel 4:9)

Point-Cut Corned Beef

The point-cut is SO much more fatty than the flat brisket cut! I don't think I'll buy the point-cut again, even though it was cheaper. I've pretty much had it with corned beef for the year. All that salt! I feel like going on a lemon and wheatgrass diet or something.

Macro-Dingle and Dingle

He he he! How cute! Kevin saw this giant stuffed frog at Ralphs during Easter time, so I waited until it went on sale and bought him. We call him Macro-Dingle (since the small guy is named Dingle). Macro-Dingle looks sleepy. We have been arguably obsessed with cute stuffed frogs ever since Kevin won the little frog for me at a claw machine in the town of Dingle, Ireland. I named him Dingle, and we've gotten into stuffed frogs ever since.

Homemade BBQ Baked Beans

Actually I didn't bake these but I slow cooked them in the slow cooker. I would call this attempt a botch because the sauce was too thick and salty, and the beans didn't come out as tender as the restaurant-style ones. That's what I get for (1) dumping in BBQ sauce instead of measuring out spices and liquids, (2) using TJ's 17 bean and barley mix instead of the standard navy beans, and (3) allowing the beans to go way beyond the 10 hour setting and burn on the edges... I won't feel as bad next time ordering baked beans as a side. The ingredients may be cheap but I sure couldn't make this on my first try!

Limburger

This was the most undesirable cheese I've ever had! It looked innocent enough in its gold foil packaging, but upon opening it, this pungent odor became noticeable, and I couldn't escape that odor with my first (and only) taste. I couldn't believe a cheese could be this bad tasting, especially one made all the way in Germany, so I looked it up later and found out that this particular cheese has the same bacteria as that found to cause body odor. How unappetizing! Next time, I will do homework before embarking on random cheese adventures.

Cabernet Wine Crackers With Cheese

I visited the new Total Wine store in the South Bay Marketplace shopping center. The developers are doing a good job of enlivening that area of Torrance! I bought this package of Cabernet wine crackers there and topped it with a lot of Cashel Blue. This actually worked out quite well since the crackers have cracked peppercorns which helped to contrast with the strong blue cheese.

Cashel Blue

Sigh. I didn't really like the Cashel Blue last time, but this time it came with the label so I bought the smallest slice I could find, just to add that label to my collection! Cashel Blue is a bit too strong of a blue for me. The only blues I have been able to take so far as gorgonzola (and only in small quantities, in conjunction with something else) and white stilton (which is actually not really a blue cheese).

Tarragon Whitefish With Vegetables

I don't remember what kind of fish this was (we made this at my friend's house). We marinated it in tarragon, chervil, and vegetable oil, and cooked it in a skillet along with julienned red bell peppers and carrots. I can't believe the recipe had no salt or pepper or anything salty... we ended up adding a dash of salt after the fact to bring out the flavor.

Poppadoms

A poppadom is basically a crispy round Indian bread that is eaten with Indian food (what else?). I bought a box of these at Ralphs, of all places, and basically watched each flat disk puff up into this fluffy crisps after about 45 seconds. They would have tasted better had I brushed some oil on them, or had I deep fried them, but the microwave worked just fine. Interestingly, the nutrition stats on these guys were pretty decent as far as being relatively low calories and high in fiber (the primary ingredient in these particular poppadums was black gram bean flour). My only complaint was that these were too salty!

Wine Tasting in Solvang

This was at one of the wineries in Solvang that we checked out. We had a bunch of coupons allowing us two tastings for the price of one. Most of the tastings allowed 5 or 6 different wines for about $8 per person, which turns out to be $4 per person with the coupons. So yay! I was reminded once again of my preference for whites. I liked the two Happy Canyon ones listed on the tasting menu the best (Sauvignon Blanc and a late harvest dessert wine).

Mortensen's Cream Cheese Danish

It turned out that everything in Solvang was within easy walking distance of our inn, including this bakery called Mortensen's, where we shared this cream cheese danish. It was really good... light and fluffy, not super buttery and soggy like most store-bought danishes. I'm sure there was a lot of fat in the pastry, but it was very light and the layers were delicately crisp, almost a cross between a turnover and croissant consistency. Anyway, the inn we stayed at also provided danishes as part of the complimentary breakfast. They tasted very similar to this one. Yum! I might have gained five pounds or so that weekend =/. Time to start exercising and watching those calories again.

Smörgåsbord

The Smörgåsbord is a traditional Scandinavian buffet-style meal consisting of various items such as cheese, crisp flatbread, cold meats, pickled herring, creamed veggies, sausages and meatballs, red cabbage, beets, and some other stuff I don't remember. We ate this for one of the meals in Solvang... It was decent at first but we couldn't take it after a couple of plates. I think Kevin only ate the chicken and eggs (not sure if either of those belongs in a traditional Smörgåsbord). My favorite thing on this plate was probably the cheese and crispbread, or maybe that little cookie on the bottom right.

Pistachio Tart

This was my other impulse purchase from Le Pain Quotidien... The pistachios lent a lovely green hue and a flair of novelty (when was the last time you saw a pistachio tart?). The kicker? The base is made of marzipan (almond paste)! Alas, this all sounded better than it tasted. It was fine but not extraordinary. Basically, I wouldn't vouch for this place as I would Extraordinary Desserts (San Diego), Portos (Glendale), Scoops (Los Angeles)...

Mini Hot Cross Bun

I stumbled across a Le Pain Quotidien in Manhattan Beach the other day and bought one of these mini hot cross buns which apparently have blueberries and currants in them. Not bad but didn't wow me. Continue to the next post...

Mango Sorbet

TJ's mango sorbet made from Australian mangoes is one of the best! It's really hard to scoop out without letting it sit for a bit though. I vouch for this because it is as rich as sorbet can get while still being only 100 calories per serving. Any richer, and you have to go into sherbet or gelato land. I hate how some sorbets are more than 100 calories per 1/2 cup serving, and most of them have sugar as the first ingredient (ew). This one has mangoes as the first ingredient!

Homemade Vanilla Bean Ice Cream With Pecan Praline Cornbread

Okay that title is a mouthful, but I have to acknowledge both parts fittingly! For the ice cream, yes I made homemade ice cream again, without an ice cream maker. I used two Madagascar vanilla beans (this time from Nielsen-Massey instead of World Market's), along with heavy cream, milk, whole eggs, sugar, and vanilla extract (the alcohol helps to soften the ice cream as well as impart more flavor). I love love love homemade ice cream! The only thing I have to give up is letting it sit for a bit after taking it from the freezer, before it is scoopable. I love how VANILLA it is. Oh, I also made the Baileys ice cream again... and once again, that was softer than the vanilla (probably due to the higher alcohol content). Mmmm....

Okay so the other part of this is the pecan praline cornbread... I basically threw in this Pecan Praline Liqueur along with a bunch of pecans, flour (regular and corn), cream cheese, and sour cream (no sugar at all), and baked the batter in little cupcake liners as well as steamed the batter in the rice cooker. The above slice you see is the steamed version. I personally love pecans and cornbread so it's something I really enjoyed (not to mention the strong kick from the liqueur). Oh and I have to comment... I don't usually get tempted by sour cream, but Wallaby's European style cultured sour cream is soooo thick and tasty that I actually got tempted to eat it straight, with crackers, before dumping it into the batter...

Chocolate Brownie Soufflé

Okay okay this wasn't really a soufflé but I just wanted to call it that due to my usage of the ramekin. This was the same brownie batter as that used for the car brownies. I actually made it myself from flour, cocoa, etc. as opposed to from a mix. It came out more cakey than fudgey but I was going for that anyhow, since fudgey brownies wouldn't fare well when attempting to release them from the shaped molds. While googling for from-scratch brownie recipes, I learned there is this huge debate about whether brownies should be fudgey or cakey... I guess my lack of opinion, coupled with the misuse of the term "soufflé," betrays that I'm not really a foodie but just someone interested in food.

Car Brownies

Yay... I've posted about these before but they were time-consuming enough to warrant another post! It's not so much the baking that takes awhile, but it's the cleanup! If you're interested in the pans themselves, they are Nordicware's "Sweet Rides Classic Car" pans. I do like all the fun shaped pans offered by Nordicware but yeah the cleanup bites.

Minted Lamb With Quinoa Polenta And Carrots

So I bought this jar of Colman's Mint Sauce on a whim... and the safest thing I could possibly use it for was to pair it with lamb! Hence, I bought these boneless lamb cuts from Fresh & Easy, threw them in the slow cooker with olive oil and the mint sauce, and the carrots, and let her cook away for 10 hours. As you can see, the resulting lamb was basically so fall-apart tender! Taste-wise, the mint sauce was fine but it's probably a bit too strong for Kevin. The other interesting part of this dish was the quinoa polenta that I picked up from Whole Foods. It went well with the minty olive oil lamb sauce. I've seen the plain yellow polenta before, but not this speckled one! Apparently it's got heirloom red and black quinoa along with your standard corn meal. Looking at the package here... it's from The Quinoa Corporation based in Gardena? How interesting. They make a lot of the other quinoa products that I recognize! Didn't know they were in Gardena. Check it out: http://www.quinoa.net/ .

Raisin Rosemary Crisps

Wow! I love these Raisin Rosemary Crisps from Trader Joe's! I say this because I've actually bought Leslie Stowe's Raincoast Crisps before, which were good but relatively pricey... So compared to that, these crisps from TJ are a no brainer replacement! Granted, the raincoast crisps come in different flavors and are bigger than these mini-toast sized crisps from TJ, but the latter are always crispy whereas I've had somewhat chewy raincoast crisps before, which are no fun. I wonder if it's because the raincoast crisps are all natural whereas the TJ may not be? I'm not sure. If you want to know what I'm talking about, you can read a bit about the Raincoast Crisps. I would vouch for the TJ crisps over Leslie's Stowe's any day though, because they taste delicious, are reliably crispy, and much more affordable!

Blue Corn & Chili Lime Crackers

Picked these up from Fresh & Easy... I love the dark blue/purple hue and the slightly spicy twist. They have the consistency of a Ritz cracker though... so kinda rich and processed as opposed to rustic. The nutrition stats weren't that great calorie-wise either. Can't remember what they were but I definitely went over the daily calorie intake those days I enjoyed these guys.

Butter Tea Cookies

Yay for tea cookies from the gourmet tea brand Tea Forté... They make those pyramid-shaped tea infusers with the little paper leaf on top. Anyway these cookies are pretty good, with the white ginger pear cookie being much more delicate and buttery than the sweet orange spice, which is a bit more substantial and chunky. There's actually tea in the ingredients (pretty subtle but you can make it out). Too bad two of these cookies alone come out to 120 cals. Here is a link to their site which is visually pleasing, although I don't see any info about their cookies: http://www.teaforte.com/ .

Chard Stuffed with Apricot-Papaya Lentils and Nuts

So again I saw an enticing photo from the Optimum Wellness newsletter from Ralphs. The recipe was for Chard Stuffed with Apricot-Fig Tagine and Couscous, but instead of the figs and couscous, I used the 17 bean mix from TJs. Instead of actual dried fruit, I actually used these little trail mix packets from Whole Foods that contained pepitas, almonds, raisins, papaya, and apricot, I believe. And then... for some reason TJ's doesn't sell chard or kale so I ended up picking up rainbow chard at Ralphs. Following the recipe, I cut off the stems, diced and sauteed them, and threw them into the fruit/nut/legume mix, along with lots and lots of turmeric, anise seed, cinnamon, cumin, and cardamom seed. For the chard leaves, I wilted them for about a minute in hot water before rolling up each leaf with the stuffing. This... was awesome. But I probably wouldn't do this again since I doubt people would like this. The chard was pretty with the semi-wilted green, but I found them a lot easier to eat after I steamed some leftover rolls (softening the chard considerably albeit making them greenish-brown rather than the pretty green you see here). Sigh... I love the pick-me up of colorful and wholesome food. Every once in a blue moon I will actually go through the effort of making something like this... When will be the next time? Nobody knows.

Veggie Chips

I love these veggie chips from the bulk foods section of the local Sprouts! This mix has kabocha squash, carrots, sweet potato, beets, taro, and green beans. Yum! It's so colorful too! I used to crunch my way through these at work but stopped getting them as frequently since it's hard to put these down once you get one taste!

Snikiddy Baked Fries

These Snikiddy baked fries were on sale for $1.50 per bag, so I bought one bag (the original) to try them out. They were nothing like fries except perhaps in appearance. The main ingredient in these things is cornmeal, which would explain the lack of semblance to fries. Oh well. This stuff tasted fine but I wouldn't get them again... not worth it in terms of calories and other nutritional stats (Snikiddy).