Jumping!
Throwing pizza dough!
Wednesday, March 31, 2010
yummy dinners
Seems like this blog is really turning into a cooking blog... I promise you it isn't. Timon has some great ideas for tech topics he wants to blog about.
Tonight for dinner we made sloppy joes and very delicious bread sticks (aka Salt and Pepper Grissini )
My parents own a bread machine, we only use it ever so often- the loaves often came out really yum the first day and then hard and dry quickly thereafter. The only other good use was when I was designing products out of bread for a competition, freshman year? Anyways-
I got both my recipes from Epicurious, one of my favorite iTouch apps. We cooked for 4 people, and sloppy joes was super easy, esp when I normally get home from work at 6:30. We bought some crusty french hoagie rolls from Tesco, (on promo!) for buns which were delicious! Bread alternatives here are great, but not like home. There's not really hot dog or hamburger buns- and they've got the rad sliced bread, but once you put condiments on they soak it up and get crushed to smithereens.
Our sloppy joes had ground hamburger, bell pepper green, mystery green pepper (wasn't spicy like I thought), yellow onion, garlic, tomato sauce, and garlic salt, chili powder, cinnamon, pepper, vinegar, white sugar, and a tad of starch.
Okay, cinnamon and sugar? Yes, I think everyone knows kristina and timon have HUGE sweet tooths, and kristina's favorite cereal IS Cinnamon Toast Crunch....so here's the explanation: The recipe called for ketchup, and I wondered- why can't I just make it? Isn't it just preserved tomato sauce?? So when on eHow for a recipe and added the ingredients into my sauce- including vinegar, cinnamon, and sugar! Sweet n Tangy! Maybe next time I'll try my hand at making ketchup. When I went to Germany, we would snack on currywurst on the train platforms- sausage with curry ketchup! so good :)
The grissini ("The what?": Timon) aka crunchy bread sticks were an inspiration from Ultimo restaurant in Bali. Located on the swag Oberoi street in the Seminyak area, this very affordable Italian restaurant was SO good, we ate there 3 days, two nights in a row. Upon being seated they bring you a basket of bread with long pencil thin bead sticks sticking out like the branches of a tree in the winter, and garlicy pesto butter to eat with it.
This recipe was a hit! It had fluff, crunch, spongey, bubbly texture. We substituted heavy cream for the buttermilk it called for, and accidentally added the egg white in, instead of brushing it ontop. It reminded me of buttermilk biscuits, and would prolly work pretty well. The dough was really soft and sticky when I was rolling it out. My baking pan is little, so the some the bread sticks became "J" and "c" shapes to fit. Would be fun to make cute shapes and serve in a soup! Maybe I will try that next time when I make chili...mmmmhmmm. The only disappointment with this recipe was that it was so small- only 10 or so little pencil bread sticks. Perfect for two people, but as an appetizer I'd have to double or triple the recipe, which I may do for our Easter brunch coming up this Sunday. Right now, we've signed up for salsa + chocolate dessert (left over from my birthday) so we'll see. I'm super behind on posts.
Tonight for dinner we made sloppy joes and very delicious bread sticks (aka Salt and Pepper Grissini )
My parents own a bread machine, we only use it ever so often- the loaves often came out really yum the first day and then hard and dry quickly thereafter. The only other good use was when I was designing products out of bread for a competition, freshman year? Anyways-
I got both my recipes from Epicurious, one of my favorite iTouch apps. We cooked for 4 people, and sloppy joes was super easy, esp when I normally get home from work at 6:30. We bought some crusty french hoagie rolls from Tesco, (on promo!) for buns which were delicious! Bread alternatives here are great, but not like home. There's not really hot dog or hamburger buns- and they've got the rad sliced bread, but once you put condiments on they soak it up and get crushed to smithereens.
Our sloppy joes had ground hamburger, bell pepper green, mystery green pepper (wasn't spicy like I thought), yellow onion, garlic, tomato sauce, and garlic salt, chili powder, cinnamon, pepper, vinegar, white sugar, and a tad of starch.
Okay, cinnamon and sugar? Yes, I think everyone knows kristina and timon have HUGE sweet tooths, and kristina's favorite cereal IS Cinnamon Toast Crunch....so here's the explanation: The recipe called for ketchup, and I wondered- why can't I just make it? Isn't it just preserved tomato sauce?? So when on eHow for a recipe and added the ingredients into my sauce- including vinegar, cinnamon, and sugar! Sweet n Tangy! Maybe next time I'll try my hand at making ketchup. When I went to Germany, we would snack on currywurst on the train platforms- sausage with curry ketchup! so good :)
The grissini ("The what?": Timon) aka crunchy bread sticks were an inspiration from Ultimo restaurant in Bali. Located on the swag Oberoi street in the Seminyak area, this very affordable Italian restaurant was SO good, we ate there 3 days, two nights in a row. Upon being seated they bring you a basket of bread with long pencil thin bead sticks sticking out like the branches of a tree in the winter, and garlicy pesto butter to eat with it.
This recipe was a hit! It had fluff, crunch, spongey, bubbly texture. We substituted heavy cream for the buttermilk it called for, and accidentally added the egg white in, instead of brushing it ontop. It reminded me of buttermilk biscuits, and would prolly work pretty well. The dough was really soft and sticky when I was rolling it out. My baking pan is little, so the some the bread sticks became "J" and "c" shapes to fit. Would be fun to make cute shapes and serve in a soup! Maybe I will try that next time when I make chili...mmmmhmmm. The only disappointment with this recipe was that it was so small- only 10 or so little pencil bread sticks. Perfect for two people, but as an appetizer I'd have to double or triple the recipe, which I may do for our Easter brunch coming up this Sunday. Right now, we've signed up for salsa + chocolate dessert (left over from my birthday) so we'll see. I'm super behind on posts.
Tuesday, March 23, 2010
Adventures in cooking!
Tonight we had a savory version of bread pudding- which ended up being more like stuffing- the thanksgiving kind.
We try not to overbuy at the grocery store, esp when its jam packed with grammas in jammies. All we had was chicken breasts, stale baguettes (again, an overestimation for dinner party) orange juice, 3 eggs, and 5 carrots.
We threw it all together in a cassarole dish, with garlic salt, lemon pepper, and onion flakes (courtesy of my mom!). I pan fried the chicken in oregano and tossed into the mix, of chopped carrots and bread (we opted for 1 carrot instead of 5)
And it came out quite pleasantly! yum yum! crunchy crust on top, with custardy juicy bread plus chicken and (rather) crunchy carrots. Next time I'll put the carrots on the bottom with the meat in the juices, so they'll steam better.
In the meantime, we'll head to the grocery store.
We try not to overbuy at the grocery store, esp when its jam packed with grammas in jammies. All we had was chicken breasts, stale baguettes (again, an overestimation for dinner party) orange juice, 3 eggs, and 5 carrots.
We threw it all together in a cassarole dish, with garlic salt, lemon pepper, and onion flakes (courtesy of my mom!). I pan fried the chicken in oregano and tossed into the mix, of chopped carrots and bread (we opted for 1 carrot instead of 5)
And it came out quite pleasantly! yum yum! crunchy crust on top, with custardy juicy bread plus chicken and (rather) crunchy carrots. Next time I'll put the carrots on the bottom with the meat in the juices, so they'll steam better.
In the meantime, we'll head to the grocery store.
Sunday, March 21, 2010
chicken pot pie!
One of our favorite meals here is a fresh baked chicken pot pie. I made my first ones when we were still dating and made one for each of us in 6" wide 2" deep pans, which ended up being twice as much food as needed, so no we always freeze one for next week (quick dinner!)
So Timon made the SUPER EASY PIE CRUST, While I made the gravy, veggie, chicken filling. We didn't have celery, onion, or celery seeds, so Substituted frozen veggies of corn, carrots, and peas. (ironically titled "meiguo" (america) on their bag) At the last minute threw in three cloves of minced garlic, and it was just SPECTACULAR!
"One of the meal uses of the the frozen veggies," Noted Timon.
We baked our pie for 20 minutes til the crust was golden brown, crispy and delicious! SO GOOD! With the two of us listening to Newsweek on air, it only took about 30-40 minutes for prep, then we did a quick office clean up while it cooked. When the oven goes *ding* I start jumping up and down and frantically search for oven mitts because I'm so ready to eat.
This pie crust used oil and milk instead of butter- since we didn't have a lot of butter to spare and no pastry knife to slice it in (it takes hours to do with a single knife!) the oil was quick and T had no trouble rolling it out.
great meal, and then we stood on our balcony and admired the cool evening air and bright city lights.
So Timon made the SUPER EASY PIE CRUST, While I made the gravy, veggie, chicken filling. We didn't have celery, onion, or celery seeds, so Substituted frozen veggies of corn, carrots, and peas. (ironically titled "meiguo" (america) on their bag) At the last minute threw in three cloves of minced garlic, and it was just SPECTACULAR!
"One of the meal uses of the the frozen veggies," Noted Timon.
We baked our pie for 20 minutes til the crust was golden brown, crispy and delicious! SO GOOD! With the two of us listening to Newsweek on air, it only took about 30-40 minutes for prep, then we did a quick office clean up while it cooked. When the oven goes *ding* I start jumping up and down and frantically search for oven mitts because I'm so ready to eat.
This pie crust used oil and milk instead of butter- since we didn't have a lot of butter to spare and no pastry knife to slice it in (it takes hours to do with a single knife!) the oil was quick and T had no trouble rolling it out.
great meal, and then we stood on our balcony and admired the cool evening air and bright city lights.
Monday, March 15, 2010
What is love? fundraiser
This year T and I helped out at the "What is love? (爱是什么？）fundraiser for Home Sweet Home, Ltd.， whom I had volunteered with previously designing products. Two teams (one married) above are competeing to scrape off shaving creme from behind their partner- it was hilarious! We had a rafffle draw and Home Sweet Home did a dance performance, and there was a wall for people to put what they thought love was. (For white Valentine's day)
Here's one of the designs I did for them, including all the famous Shanghai buildings.
Friday, March 5, 2010
Stale bread?
Sometimes T goes to the store to buy groceries without me, and comes back with a LOT more than I expect. His idea is that if he buys more quantity now, it'll save him from coming back later in the week. This usually means buying 2 of everything.
What do you do with a week old baguette? Make it into pudding! Bread pudding!
Crispy top crust, and soft custerdy bread underneath. yum!
1 cup milk
1/2 c. sugar (I had put way too much in)
3 eggs
2 c. cubed stale bread
1/2 tsp. cinnamon
1/2 tsp. vanilla
1/3 c. Raisins on the bottom
stick in the oven for 20 minutes on 350 degrees with a an of water underneath to help steam it. I made this a bunch while we were dating and had excess bread.
so good!
What do you do with a week old baguette? Make it into pudding! Bread pudding!
Crispy top crust, and soft custerdy bread underneath. yum!
1 cup milk
1/2 c. sugar (I had put way too much in)
3 eggs
2 c. cubed stale bread
1/2 tsp. cinnamon
1/2 tsp. vanilla
1/3 c. Raisins on the bottom
stick in the oven for 20 minutes on 350 degrees with a an of water underneath to help steam it. I made this a bunch while we were dating and had excess bread.
so good!
Wednesday, March 3, 2010
Wedding pics teaser
We had two wonderful photographers, Cindy Fong plus Sarah Dawson for our wedding day. They came up with creative angles, poses, and locations in our favorite city of Oakland (and area) for the bridal party. Mills college was a favorite, and also by my house, and then the luscious Hayward Tea Garden where T and I took our own lovey dovey couple shots. Cindy lives in the neighborhood and even alumni of the same high school. Go Titans! Shop local!
Mills College is an all girls school, that offered a variety of settings, from the gothic steps area, to huge open arches, and even a bunch of little webber BBQs for the guys to shoot pics with- which came out awesome! While we were shooting pics at the tea garden, the rest of the bridal party was goofing off and we found them taking jump photos in front of an old school bus parked on the street- with the girl's shoes in a pile nearby. It was sooo fun!
Later, we took photos at Eden's original St. Steven's chapel, which was adorable- and then more traditional ones in the huge modern sanctuary where we were later wed.
Check out Cindy Fong's blog for a slideshow!
Beijing - Visa battle part II
We flew to Beijing to take care of Visa stuff... that evening we are going over the process with our helper, and find out we can't go from my tourist status visa to a residence permit! (Which is the opposite of what SH's visa office told us last week)
So, our only other option was to apply for a 6 month visa, and then need to leave the country and buy a diff visa and re-enter SH. Another plane ticket we didn't want to have to pay for.
The next morning I met our helper at the visa office (This is when I read my first SMS in Chinese, ”我到了“）and we photocopy and fax and fill out forms for the officer until she's satisfied (lots of running between copy machine and standing in line) and then we find out that they CHANGED THE RULE THAT MORNING so I could change my tourist visa into a residence permit!!! How awesome is that?
SO awesome, that we went to Ho Hi with T's colleague for lunch.
The lake was frozen.
Abundant blessings!
So, our only other option was to apply for a 6 month visa, and then need to leave the country and buy a diff visa and re-enter SH. Another plane ticket we didn't want to have to pay for.
The next morning I met our helper at the visa office (This is when I read my first SMS in Chinese, ”我到了“）and we photocopy and fax and fill out forms for the officer until she's satisfied (lots of running between copy machine and standing in line) and then we find out that they CHANGED THE RULE THAT MORNING so I could change my tourist visa into a residence permit!!! How awesome is that?
SO awesome, that we went to Ho Hi with T's colleague for lunch.
The lake was frozen.
Abundant blessings!
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