there's more in store

i got a twofer subscription to "cooking light" and didn't really think i'd do much besides flip through it. i've been pleasantly surprised by the quality of the magazine and my motivation to actually make some of the recipes in it.

over the weekend i made the buttermilk quick bread (see sunday's entry) and tonight i made the spicy black bean hummus.

drizzled with sea salt, crushed red pepper and olive oil

although i am loathe to make new year's resolutions, i am trying to try a new recipe once a week. so far i've two new recipes under my belt.



i haven't quite decided what's up next, but i'm thinking some sort of dessert. the only trouble with all these recipes is finding someone to share the goodies with!

six word sunday: there's nothing like freshly baked bread

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baker's choice

what i did saturday afternoon:

all this plus two 4x8 loaves

i made a quadruple recipe of banana bread.

quadruple.

it is delicious if i may say so, but i don't want to see another banana for quite some time.

six word sunday: they ate until nothing was left

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sushi mania

i never told you about the sushi making class i took in april!

this was, of course, before samantha jones in the "sex and the city" movie made sushi truly, erm, edible.

the class was so much fun! not only did we learn from true sushi chefs, but we also got an etiquette lesson ("never place your chopsticks up and down in a bowl of rice -- it's a symbol of death," among others).

and the best part was that we got to eat our creations.

this was made by one of the chefs right before our eyes from fresh bamboo growing outside the restaurant. none of that fake grass stuff here!


tuna handroll


all the good stuff


tuna and salmon skinny roll, in process


tuna and salmon skinny roll


tuna and avocado inside-out roll, in progress


inside-out roll

kani and tobiko


ebi


i've never left a class so delightfully stuffed. now i just have to try my hand at making them at home...

i wish you had smell-o-vision

cause they were that good.



chocolate croissants. i made 'em.

mother's day, gumbo-style

mother's day 'round my place was great.

my dad and i started the day with lots and lots of prep at my place for the evening's meal, gumbo.

long story short: lots of bell peppers, onion, okra, louisiana hot link sausage, chicken andouille sausage, chicken, jalapeños, serranos, fresh crab and various other bits produced this.


see the steam?

drool-worthy, indeed.

grand plan

seems like i just keep having so much fun!

last week i took half of wednesday off to go to a giants game. they won, and taking the train up to the city saved me $25 in parking fees and the headache of driving up there.

thursday i got my hair cut and colored. i'm totally digging my new asymmetrical bob and tri-colored hair.

saturday was jewels' shower, and much fun was had. after a hanging out with friends for a few hours afterwards, i headed to downtown san jose for dinner and drinks with my good friend tara.

sunday morning came around too early, and before i knew it we were on the road to the alameda antiques by the bay, more commonly known (by me) as the alameda flea. oh, what goodies there were to be had! i spent a little over $100 and got all kinds of good stuff. including two globes (one on a stand!) bringing my total globe purchase count for the week at, erm, three.

creepy dolls


books!





some of our purchases

after the flea, we headed to the scharffenberger chocolate factory for lunch at their cafe. such delicious food!


grilled cheese sandwich


burger and fries


brownie


here's to having more great weeks!

p.s. -- all of these pix were taken with my new camera and jewels' and cy's 50mm 1.4f lens. i'm getting my own soon. :)

super fat tuesday

super tuesday + fat tuesday = super fat tuesday.

i'm watching "eddie murphy raw" right now. i remember it coming out in 1987 and knowing i wanted to see it, if only because my parents said i couldn't.

i'm pretty sure lewis black ate at one of my restaurants today. i mean, the guy looked like him, sounded like him, so it must be him, right? sadly i didn't have the courage to ask, and neither did the person who pointed him out to me.

i did recognize ronnie lott when he came in just before christmas to a different location of mine. that was cool, seeing a childhood hero, in the flesh, downing a corona light with his daughter.

the cake decorating class is over. it turned out to be lots of fun, i only wish the "final" was on a weekend so i could have dedicated more time to making sure my cake looked as good as possible.
the decorating process:

official frosting tester


i absolutely love that shade of blue


finished product

speaking of food, i cooked a mean dinner last night: pasta with goat cheese and asparagus. i used the last of the white elbow macaroni, but i feel like it would have been better with whole wheat. next time!



to be put in the oven


ready to eat


i like eddie murphy ("trading places" is one of my favorite movies) but i'm pretty sure i've only managed a chuckle twice during the past 40 minutes of this routine. let's hope the second half is funnier than the first.

six word sunday: it looks easier than it was

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last night's dinner

was so good and so orange.

punishment dinner

i once came across a blogger who referred to homemade lunches as "punishment lunches," because what else could compare to the reward of going out to eat?

this week has me low on funds, mostly due to too much holiday shopping, so i've decided to eat in. needless to say, i wasn't looking forward to making meals out of what i had at home, but if tonight and last night were any indication, "punishment" is a relative term.

last night i had homemade garlic bread with a sprinkling of parmesan cheese and whole wheat four-cheese ravioli with a hearty marinara. yeah, the pasta and sauce were store-bought, but i added my own spices for a kick. i topped it off with a glass (okay, two) of pretty much the only chardonnay i like, rombauer.






tonight i had crab cakes and a simple salad with light balsamic vinegar dressing and a couple of biscuits.






tomorrow will be leftover ravioli, and who knows what wednesday will bring.

fryin' high

did i tell you all we deep-fried a turkey for thanksgiving? it seems like so long ago now, but it was only the other day that i found a recipe for leftover mashed potatoes, of which i had a ton left. the resulting dish of leftover mashed potatoes was delicious, but horribly unhealthy -- sort-of like a twice-baked potato with cheddar cheese, bacon and green onions, but without all that pesky scooping. i ate a portion and then threw the rest away. and as much as i hate to waste food, it was probably for the best.

but the turkey. y'know, i'm not really a meat eater, but i love me a good turkey sammich. father took the leftover turkey and carcass to make soup, his thanksgiving tradition, so the only turkey i had was on the day itself. i'm a white meat kinda gal so i was hoping that the deep frying would seal in the moisture. it sure did! i don't eat the skin (ick!) but even so it was noticeably better than an oven-cooked turkey. i'm not sure we'd fry a turkey again (hello 4 gallons of peanut oil!) but the results were good and the time it took to cook a 13 pound bird can't be beat -- about 40 minutes! i'm happy to report we had no burns or 325 degree oil bubbling over or other horror stories that seem to be heard this time of year.

we're good like that.

snack attack

Lisa and I will be making a pilgrimage (it seemed only fitting to use that word given the post-Thanksgiving timing of this entry) here on Saturday.

Yes, more food this close to Thanksgiving, and yes, it's over 30 miles each way -- what of it?!

What sparked this seemingly sudden trip? If you know me, you know I loves me some Sonic, particularly their fresh fruit slushes (can I get an "Amen!" for lime?). But that's not what was the impetus for this trip.

My friend Matt called me on Saturday to brag that he was in line at Sonic. Jewels made a special phone call from Texas to inform me that she and her hubby were in line at Sonic.

Some friends, eh?

Come Saturday, a chicken sandwich with honey mustard and a lime slush will be mine.

And if I'm feeling particularly saucy, I may make that slush a large.

Oh, who am I kidding. It'll be large all the way.

gimmie a gob, guy!

Ah, yes.

The end of an (all too short) era.

But much celebrating was had Friday night with the "season" (yes, it's still termed 'season') finale of Arrested Development.

These folks (two links) were kind enough to host a shindig, and I brought the following as a tribute:

"Two sticks and extra nuts? What is this, Mardi Gras?"