Frosting On Top

raspberry pâte à choux and eight days

2010-08-11T22:35:00.000-07:00

my god, it has been a busy week! but now that i finally have a day off and some time to blog, things are starting to slow down (for now) and i have a chance to breathe (whew!). so let me just update you guys on the whole work situation: my job is awesome! i've managed from just being a regular prep cook to being a pastry prep cook, and even working the pastry line! it's great and i'm definitely learning a lot nowadays. the only thing i can't say i like TOO much is the hours. let me explain: yesterday was my eighth day straight working. yep. it was actually supposed to be my day off, but i guess they just love me so much that they want me there all the time! yayy overtime!! 8/

but no joke, i really like my job. i'm happy that i got into that restaurant instead of giving up and settling for some summer retail job because (MOST of) the people there are great and i get to make some pretty delicious desserts.

anyway, onto this week's delectable confection! Pâte à choux dough used to make mini eclairs, profiteroles, and Paris-Brests all filled with a raspberry chantilly creme and fresh raspberries :p

all three of them in their golden-brown glory...

close-up of the Paris-Brest. traditionally, the doughnut shape is meant to resemble a bicycle wheel, celebrating the bicycle race from Paris to Brest and back. because if i'm gonna bike 1200 km, the first thing i'm reaching for isn't water, it's this beauty ;)

and a close-up of the mini eclair. *drool* part of me wished i dipped the top half in some chocolate glaze, but the other part of me doesn't really care at this point cuz it tasted pretty bomb anyway haha.

the chantilly creme had just the right amount of subtle sweetness, along with the fresh raspberries' sweet and sour notes, and the crunchy but eggy flavor of the choux. all i know is, there better be at least ONE left tomorrow morning for me for breakfast. otherwise, someone in this family is losing a finger.

almond irish coffee bites and job training

2010-07-25T19:32:00.001-07:00

this past week i've been training for work, and it's just been busy busy busy lately. it's hard to imagine how busy and rushed we'll all be once the restaurant actually opens! there are quite a few things i learned from training, though. for one thing, a lot of times prep cook = slave. okay, maybe that was a slight over exaggeration. but you know how slaves do the same menial tasks over and over again? that's kinda what i was hinting at. okay, maybe it's not really AS BAD as slavery, because we get two days off a week, we don't get physically harmed or anything, and at some point we'll start getting paid for doing this! so i take that last statement back, because i like money! and i also enjoy not wasting away at home all day hahaha.

so let's move on. another thing i learned from training: always, ALWAYS wash the vegetables! ESPECIALLY if it's organic! no joke, dude. because some of the things i saw in there are just NOT pretty.

one more thing i learned: quality over quantity (or at least while it's still training time)! i learned this after making tray after tray of shitty-looking ravioli. i don't know why the HELL i thought i had to rush, it's not like they told me to make a certain amount or anything. once i finally slowed down and put more care into each ravioli, they actually started to look pretty decent :)

anyway, onto this week's dessert! it was actually a result of two ruined sheet pans of biscuit jaconde (siiighhh). basically they just decided that they did not want to separate from the paper, so after scraping piece after piece of the cake off and deciding i didn't want to waste any of it, i crumbled it all and combined it with some irish coffee buttercream that i whipped up, compressed them into a large square, and cut them into cubes. it's basically the same principal behind cake balls, but i just got tired of making them round.

i know i know, they look like rice krispy squares. well they're not, so cut it out!!

my original plan was to dip them in white chocolate ganache so that you couldn't see the sides and then just decorate the top. well, as you can see here, that didn't work, as my ganache turned out to be too runny. well, EFF YOU, white chocolate. why do you always have to eff things up for me?!! pfft. what i ended up doing was just brushing the tops with some thick, glossy dark chocolate sauce that i had left over, which was also thick enough to pipe a little design on top too. see that, white chocolate? dark chocolate will ALWAYS be better than you. don't even think you're better, you supremacist jerk!

things i learned from this experiment:
1. i officially HATE white chocolate. YOU'RE NOT EVEN REAL CHOCOLATE! what percentage of cacao do you have? that's right, zero! get out of here, FAKER!!
2. apparently coffee and chocolate are a winning combination for my dad, who seemed to enjoy these more than some of my other experiments...
3. i found an egg with 2 yolks in it! okay, maybe i didn't learn anything from that, but it's still cool in my book! they're like twins!!! :D

drunken peach cake

2010-07-18T16:57:00.001-07:00

another summer day, another day of sweltering in the heat. so what to do when stuck in a hot home with barely functioning internet, nothing on TV, and clearly irritable family members? make a cake, of course!

drunken peach cake. i could tell that even the peaches were suffocating in this heatwave, and i just HAD to take them out of their misery. i had half a sheet of genoise mousseline left over from the mango charlottes, so i decided this would be the best way to go. it has layers of genoise mousseline soaked in brandy syrup, a layer of peach puree gelee, peach and honey mousse, and torched meringue on top.

standing tall and proud :) i'm surprised (and happy) that it didn't totally fall apart once i took it out of the fridge. the brandy syrup kept it very moist, and the whole thing had a nice subtle sweetness. the only thing i would change about it if i decide to make it again is to use a little more brandy for a more pronounced flavor.

some things i learned from making this cake:

1. torching things is fun when your torch actually works! i can recall a totally burnt and not bruleed creme brulee from the past due to a dysfunctional torch, which still haunts me to this day...

2. if you don't have an aluminum square to mold the cake/mousse/gelee in, a square cake tin plus foil and wax paper makes a (somewhat) suitable replacement. innovation in the face of obstacles!

3. make sure the area is cleared of clutter or weird things in the background before taking pictures. if you couldn't tell before, the first picture includes my sister's legs, and the last picture includes her purple shorts and butt -__- she decided it would be fun to take a hot (and sweaty) nap on the couch :/

mango charlotte royale and the HOTTEST DAY EVARRR

2010-07-16T23:13:00.000-07:00

today was a fun (although HOT) summer day and night; the friends and i had a picnic at the Fullerton Arboretum (free!), we went around Brea mall where i bought some white tshirts for work and some black sandals which i was in DIRE need of because my last pair broke, then we explored and took pictures around IKEA, and ended the day by playing in the park in the dark and cooling off in the grass. all in all, one of the funnest days i've had this summer :) it was a good end to my so-called "break" because next monday i start job training! WOOT!! i'm excited and nervous and just anxious all over about this. hopefully it won't be too bad!

lately the weather has not been kind, staying among the 100's (my car said it was 108 degrees today -___-) and i heard that tomorrow won't be any cooler. and AND lately there has been flash flood warnings around the LA county area...? so i really don't know wtf is UP with alla that nonsense. SOO, because it was so hot, i decided it would be nice to have a fruity chilled dessert to have on hand. i present to you: the Mango Charlotte Royale. yes yes yes, i know the last post i promised a layered jaconde cake, but that dream was swiftly taken away when i realized that i was ONE OUNCE short of the amount of almonds i needed :/

it's mango bavarois lined with genoise mousseline, garnished with mango slices, strawberries, and chocolate. originally i was going to make a little chocolate fence around it just to cover up the sides, but apparently it was so hot that after the chocolate set up in the fridge, it would immediately melt once i took it out. siighhh. anyway, it was the perfect little pick-me-up for this afternoon: cool, smooth, creamy, and deliciously fruity, with just the right amount of subtle sweetness :p

soooo... things that i learned from making this dessert:

1. i need aluminum cake rings! i didn't have any on hand, and so instead i used ramekins lined with saran wrap (which explains all the ridges along the top). "well why didn't you just cut up some cans and use those instead like Alton Brown did?" you ask. well i already tried that, and to tell you the truth, i'm just scared of cutting my hand. so i mean, which would you rather have, a ridged-y sided dessert, or no dessert at all because it was covered in blood? i rest my case.

2. sometimes it's just too hot for chocolate :( unless you want it super melty-like. then it's alright.

3. according to my baking book, the name "Charlotte Russe" is actually the name of a dessert! who knew? it's just another version of the charlotte, just like the Charlotte Royale. it makes me feel slightly better knowing this, so that i won't always have to associate it with just a cheap clothing store :)

4. fruit Bavarian Cream (or Bavarois) is RIDICULOUSLY easy to make :)

strawberry and white chocolate cake and a breezy summer week

2010-07-11T15:39:00.000-07:00

i've decided to take full advantage of summer and this week was basically all about sleeping in, hanging out with friends, and pretty much doing whatever i want :) i also came up with what kind of design i wanted for this cake that's been sitting in my freezer (although that didn't really turn out the way i planned... still pretty, though!)

vanilla cake filled with strawberry whipped cream, topped with strawberry slices and surrounded by white chocolate shards. this was basically my attempt to utilize whatever i had in the pantry and the fridge (i just saw an episode of Chopped last night, and i was thinking i should be a little more inspired by what i already have on hand!)

things i learned from decorating this cake: white chocolate doesn't melt the same way regular chocolate does... actually, i already knew this, but THIS time it was being a total bitch. WHATEVER, white chocolate. i OWN you. nomnomnom.

also, making the chocolate shards requires a lot of measuring with a ruler, so make sure when you measure that you can actually SEE the marks you made! sighh. grey pencil mark + grey sheet pan = invisible marks! who knew?

since i'm getting a little bored with circle cakes, next time i plan on making a layered jaconde. wish me luck! :)

4th of july feats and flops!

2010-07-06T00:02:00.001-07:00

happy (late) Independence Day! my independence night was spent at a party at my uncle's house, and i had my first go at making american bbq beef (feat!) and i attempted to make mini chocolate pound cakes (flop). the beef was SOOOO goood and i actually got to cut a good amount of hours cooking it by just using the pressure cooker instead of the slow cooker or oven. the chocolate pound cake on the other hand, well, just keep reading.

looks pretty, right? yeah NO. i thought they looked good when they came out of the oven too.

a cross section... it turned out to be really dense, but REALLY dry. also, the recipe i used was SO deceiving! the picture they provided made it look like it was really dark and moist and chocolatey, but i KNEW that it could never get that way without any actual chocolate!! (the recipe only uses cocoa powder).

another problem i came along while i was mixing it: I RAN OUT OF SUGAR. WTF. so not only was it dry, it was barely sweet. siighh. i thought i could make up for the lack of granulated sugar in the batter by just mixing in some powdered sugar and then topping it with powdered sugar later, but that just made it only somewhat bearable. oh well. i brought it to the party anyway, and the kids seemed to like it! so at least i didn't have to bring a full pan of that back home :)

so, just to recap: no sugar in the house. this means, no baking until i go grocery shopping on wednesday :( hopefully the next thing i bake won't make me so miserable!

kiwi gelato and an update on the job hunt

2010-07-03T15:17:00.000-07:00

remember my last post i mentioned a job fair in Newport? well, i MIGHT get the job! or i MIGHT NOT! i know, this whole thing makes me kinda nervous, too. basically, whether i get the job or not (a part time prep cook position) depends on my fall schedule for school, which i won't know until July 7th. sooo, at this point i'm hoping and PRAYING that they'll still want me by then! i was one of the VERY FEW people who actually bothered to dress well (i swear, over half the people just came in tshirts and jeans and flip flops -__-), so i'm hoping that worked well to my advantage.

anyway, onto the gelato!

probably one of the easiest frozen desserts i've ever made, as it has no eggs, and no cooking process whatsoever! :)

kiwis were on sale at my local mexican market for 8 for $1, so of course, i had to take advantage of that...

creamy, soft and tart :p it even managed to stay soft after a day in the freezer, whereas most of the ice creams i've made in the past have just hardened. the only thing i would really change about this recipe is to use powdered sugar instead of granulated white since it's not cooked, and the granulated sugar doesn't really dissolve. other than that, it's a good 8 out of 10 :)

mini cake and trying to make progress

2010-06-23T21:10:00.000-07:00

another day, another addition to the portfolio. it turns out, i REALLY need practice, especially with beadwork. looking back on the pictures of the cake i made for the debut, it looks like i haven't improved at all! i'm hoping that maybe that photographer just took the pictures from reeeally good angles.

thank GOD for good lighting. this way it's harder to see some of the less obvious problems. and at least now i know how to make proper buttercream instead of that lame "7-minute" buttercream that i had to make TONS of for the debut cake.

i know that this picture makes the cake look big, but in reality it's only 6 inches in diameter hahaha. that's why those beads look so honkin' huge here. it's half almond, half vanilla cake with a strawberry whipped cream filling. it tastes like the cream from those strawberry Yan Yans haha :p

my sister said it looks like a hat (-___-). sighh... i made one more 9-inch cake but haven't decorated it yet because i ran out of buttercream, but i'll probably get that done soon. tomorrow there are open interviews for a restaurant in Newport, and hopefully i'll have some luck there...

cupcakes and building a portfolio

2010-06-22T19:26:00.001-07:00

looking for a job is stressful, people! i should know, because i've been on this job hunt for what feels like FOREVER now. sooo, since many websites suggest making a portfolio and several bakeries have asked for pictures of my work, i've decided it's time to make a portfolio to show them what i can do. BUUUT then i realized i haven't really been taking pictures of some of the more professional-looking things i've made, and the only thing that i think is really worth showing there is the cake i made 2 YEARS AGO for my cousin's debut (back when i really knew NOTHING about making tiered cakes). so to make up for that, i'll be busy the next couple of days baking and decorating as much as i can to take pictures of. here are a few things i made this morning:

almond cupcakes...

orange creme cupcakes...

vanilla cupcakes with crushed almond praline.

i know that these are super plain but for now they'll have to do. right now i have a 6-inch cake in the freezer just waiting to be filled and decorated :)

black and white cake balls, a.k.a. what to do with leftovers

2010-06-21T21:10:00.000-07:00

since the bombes i made only used a little cake for the bases, i was left with a whole sheet pan of leftover chocolate cake with no clue as to what to do with it. sure, i could have just eaten it plain, but what kind of aspiring pastry chef would i be if i did that? no, they must be dressed, and they MUST be gorgeous.

so i remembered what we did for Honors Night when we had excess devil's food cake: Bakerella's cake pops, except i didn't really have the time (or money) to go out and buy lollipop sticks to make pops so i opted for the cheaper version and just made cake balls... besides, this way they look prettier, and a lot like chocolate truffles :)

i used just plain semisweet and white chocolate to coat the cake, and i took the leftover almond praline i had, crushed it, and topped half of the cake balls with it.

i remember one time when i was in middle school, i went out with my friend and her family to a chocolate shop that they frequented and they had something that was exactly like this, except their version was freakin' gigantic, almost the size of my fist! it's good to know that i can replicate a bite-sized version of such chocolatey goodness :p

mint ice cream bombe with almond praline and a gluttonous (but good) father's day

2010-06-20T20:26:00.001-07:00

today was father's day, and my sister and i had to wake up early (and by early i mean 7:30 hahaha) and help my dad start building the storage shed in the backyard. when it got too hot to continue, we all went out to Grand Buffet for a late lunch and endless amounts of crab legs and sushi :p

after a GLORIOUS food coma and then after church, we decided that we were all still too full to eat dinner after that buffet, but we still wanted to eat the dessert i prepared last night:

mint ice cream bombe with almond praline and a chocolate cake base :)

just making the ice cream was almost a full-day procedure on it's own, because for SOME reason, every time i want to make ice cream the freezer seems to poop out :( BUT once all that nonsense was over with, it wasn't too bad. i used up a lot of the mint leaves growing in ze garden because that's the only herb i have there that seems to be growing out of control...

a cross section so you can see the chocolate cake base. i guess the ice cream was a little too runny when i put in the cake in so it kind of soaked in, but it didn't have an effect on the taste so at this point i don't mind it hahaha.

i like the fact that it didn't turn into a freakishly green color, but instead had a creamy yellow-green hue (even though in these pics it kinda looks like a block of butter but ANYWAYS) i think it looks slightly more elegant this way :)

caprese salad canapes from ze garden :)

2010-06-17T23:16:00.000-07:00

one problem that i seem to have with my tomato plants is that for some reason they only grow ripe tomatoes two at a time. not even enough to make a proper salsa, i say! soo, what to do with so few tomatoes? make the perfect mid morning snack, of course!

i put it in the oven for a couple of minutes just to melt the cheese. mmmmm... melty cheese :p

i didn't bake this one, but i wanted to put in the pic just because you can see the inside of the baby tomato better:) drizzled with a little balsamic vinegar after i decided it looked a little naked...

as for my life, not mucho to update on! i'm waiting on a callback after the interview today, and tomorrow is Jaegerhaus day! which is great cuz i'm totally up for some overpriced german food and a little get-together :D

parppadelle with creamy almond basil pesto and a new pasta maker!

2010-06-14T19:09:00.000-07:00

that's right, muthhas! i got a shiny red pasta maker, all for $10!!! from where you say? well, yesterday just happened to be a good day for thrift shopping. and yes, i was slightly skeptical myself. buuutt after carefully checking to see if there was anything wrong with it, it turns out it just needed a little cleaning. it was basically brand new, and it couldn't have come at a more perfect time because i was about to ask my parents for one for my birthday :)
it looks a lot like this one. snaaazzyy ;D

i used the school's pasta recipe and it wasn't really the same cuz i had to use AP flour instead of bread flour but it was still pretty good. ALTHOUGHH one thing that i should have considered first is that they might stick together after i rolled & cut them out so i had to deal with that mess too -__-

for the pesto i used raw almonds instead of pine nuts after i saw it on a recipe from foodwishes.com, plus i never buy pine nuts anyway cuz they're soo freakin' expensive for some reason. also, i used the basil from my mini herb/vegetable garden in the backyard. yay for home-grown and a sustainable supply! :D

all in all, it was a delicious & filling meal. aaannd, i had some leftover pesto for future use on mah lazier days.

coming up later this week, a job interview this thursday! last week i went around to a bunch of different bakeries around where i live, and since NONE of them were hiring, i finally stumbled upon this place. it's for a line cook position at a place in brea, so wish me luck on that :)

AnQi garlic noodles with beef

2010-06-08T22:04:00.000-07:00

in my Dining Room Service class, we pooled all the tips we earned during the semester and on our last day we used that money to eat at AnQi, a Vietnamese/fusion bistro in South Coast Plaza. with the tips and money from the restaurant, we had a budget of $50 per person, and it should have been enough for an appetizer, entree, dessert, and service.

AnQi is supposed to be famous for their garlic noodles, and when we had them as our entrees, it was without a doubt, very tasty. but in my mind, it also seemed deceptively simple... soo, of course, i went browsing around the interwebz looking for a recipe, which i found almost immediately! yay internet! and yes, it was INCREDIBLY easy... the recipe only had 5 ingredients! FIIVE!!! (six if you count salt, but why would you?)

chewy, garlicky, and buttery noodles, topped with sauteed beef i marinated the night before and scallions. while i doubt this dish is Vietnamese AT ALL, at this point i really don't care because it tastes good, and that's all that matters :)

so let's look and compare the differences: the slices of beef i used were thinner, and i sliced the scallions in rounds instead of strips. i also probably marinated the beef differently because i was kinda winging it with that last night haha. it's crazy how much people will pay for something so simple! i guess i have to give AnQi props though; the interior is swanky and the tofu banana cheesecake tasted WAY better than it sounded. but now that i know i can make the dish they're famous for, i probably won't ever go there again (unless someone else is paying hahaha).

moist cherry brownies and bonfires

2010-06-06T15:16:00.000-07:00

yesterday we celebrated my cousin's 20th birthday party at Corona Del Mar beach, and since she decided to hire someone to bake cupcakes for her (-___-), i decided i still wanted to bake a little something just to contribute. what was funny was that people were telling me how great the cupcakes were that they thought i baked haha.

anyway, onto the brownies! *drool* they were sooo gooey and chocolatey. also, instead of using dried cherries like the recipe suggested, i bought some fresh cherries and used those instead, because i wanted them to help make the brownies extra moist :) and and and i pitted each individual cherry BY HAND, because THAT is how i like to include the looove that was needed in baking this! :)

soooo good :p it's kinda hard to see the cherries in here cuz they were so dark, but i didn't care because you could TASTE them :D also, apologies for the terrible lighting in these pics, but i finished baking them around 11:30 the night before, so you can imagine how late it was when they actually cooled down so i could cut them and take the pics. if you can't tell, that's supposed to be a fresh cherry in front of the brownies, but you can see how dark those cherries were...

right out of the oven. the only problem i had with this recipe is that it didn't specify how big of a pan was needed, and it said that it only makes 12-15 brownies. all i have to say to that is GOOD LORD how big do you cut your brownies, woman? i would say i got AT LEAST 24 fairly-sized portions out of there (and when i say "fairly-sized," i mean HUGE).

the bonfire! my god we had to work hard to get to this point. and i'm not just talking about making the actual fire, but some people actually came there at 4 pm saying it was their bonfire pit, and the arguing and raising of voices ensued. i swear, this happens every time i go to the beach! apparently people are really defensive about their fires...

dark chocolate raspberry and marzipan truffles

2010-06-03T18:15:00.000-07:00

the first half of yesterday was spent trapped in the house, as construction workers were fixing the asphalt outside my house. the SECOND half was spent exploring the West Covina Mall and looking for work. by the time i was done i had applied to 7 different places, both in food and retail. hopefully this will result in a callback! i didn't even really finish going around the mall, as i realized there were a bunch of restaurants in the surrounding area that i didn't visit.

today i used this morning to continue my workout plan, which basically just reminded me that i can't do a proper push-up -___- siiigghh. i hope that by the end of the 6 weeks, i'll at least be able to do that! after taking a shower and eating a late and somewhat healthy lunch, i began to work on these babies, which tasted soooo decadent. :p what? i can't eat desserts when i'm trying to work out? WELL EFF THAT. don't bring your negativity in here!

dark chocolate truffles with fresh marzipan-stuffed raspberries. yummm.

right after i decorated them. i love making truffles because they are so surprisingly easy to make and very easy to make them look pretty :)

cross-sectional of one truffle. it's basically a raspberry stuffed with marzipan and double dipped in dark chocolate ganache, then decorated with that same ganache. easy, right? and so so so cute :D

tomorrow i plan on going back to the mall and going around to other places i didn't visit, and maybe bake something as well...

waterfalls and coconut tapioca with mango and banana verrines

2010-06-01T18:56:00.000-07:00

yesterday i had quite an interesting Memorial Day; i went hiking with my cousin and my aunt at a place in Rancho Cucamonga, and the trail led to a waterfall! and it wasn't like those pansy trickles of water they call waterfalls at the parks here, it was an ACTUAL FREAKIN' WATERFALL, with ropes tied to the rocks on the top so you can climb up and jump off. it actually wasn't even a trail; there was a path cleared off in the beginning, and when we were getting closer to the water there was a lot of climbing rocks and walking across logs over the water. dangerous stuff! and i suppose if we had been more cautious people we would have brought first aid kits, because by the end of the hike my aunt had scraped her knee and i had scratches all over my shins from climbing the rocks and sliding down. but oh wells! i guess we like to live dangerously ;) later when we went home i went on GoogleMaps to see if that waterfall had an actual name or if it was a landmark of some sort, but i guess no one really knows about it because that whole trail was just a grey area on the map! it's crazy how we can have these things so close to us but never even know it's there!

today is my first official day of summer break, and i spent the morning starting the 6-week program on Wii's EA Active workout. hopefully i will begin to see results soon! this will probably be kind of hard to detect though, seeing as how i can't seem to find my weighing scale anywhere... since i was practically trapped at home today (my sister took my car to school -___-), after taking a bath and doing some laundry, i decided to spend some time relaxing and cooking with a few of the ripening fruit we have in our kitchen.

these tasted SOOO GOOD. OMG. you don't even understand. i know that the recipe said to chill them, but when it was warm it tasted a lot like the ginataan my grandma made a few years ago, which happens to be my favorite filipino dessert, so i decided it was best to leave it warm. also, i recall from my Pantry class that food loses flavor when it's colder, and i couldn't possibly do that to these babies!

this was my first time ever working with tapioca, and i have to say it was pretty easy :) i never realized how much starch is coating these things though; after boiling it once to remove the excess starch, it still managed to make the coconut cream nice and thick once it cooled down.

i garnished the mango verrine with mango slices and a raspberry, and the banana verrine with a triangle tuile and mint leaves.

a close-up of the layers of mango compote and coconut tapioca. the recipe i used said it only made 2 servings, so i doubled it thinking it would make 4. WRONG. instead i ended up with enough of the coconut tapioca to make 8 servings, but only enough mango compote for 5... and since i'm not one to just let it go to waste, i decided to use a couple of the ripe bananas we had as the base of the verrine instead. turned out to be a pretty good idea :)

chocolate chunk blackberry sour cream ice cream: flop of the week

2010-05-30T21:26:00.000-07:00

it seemed like a good idea when i saw it! i saw a recipe for blackberry sour cream ice cream, and seeing as how i had blackberries AND sour cream i thought "what the hell, why not." probably bad judgment on my part because

a. blackberries are sour
b. sour cream is SOUR

PROBABLY should have opted for the custard with eggs in the recipe, but at the moment we didn't have any eggs in the fridge (but just as fate would have it, yesterday my mom bought 5 DOZEN eggs, LORD KNOWS WHY, and now i have no idea what to do with them -___-)

at least it looks good right? the color looks really good too. i garnished it with some fresh blackberries and mint leaves, and also one of the tuile cookies we made in class on ice cream day. it tastes like a waffle cone! :D

blackberries simmering away... one thing i should have done after blending all this stuff is strain it, but alas, our fine mesh strainer is about the size of my fist (probably meant for tea leaves) and also i was feeling lazy that night.

the mixture before i put it in the freezer...

a close-up of it all. since it was so sour, i served it after the BBQ today and pitched it as "blackberry frozen yogurt" since it tasted more like yogurt than ice cream :/ one thing i DID like was deciding to put chocolate chunks in it, even though some of the chunks were honkin' HUGE and some were really small. but still good! chocolate never seems to fail me :)

raspberry and almond clafoutis and memorial day weekend

2010-05-29T21:05:00.000-07:00

3 day weekend! not that it really matters to me at this point because spring semester is finally over! weee! i'm finally getting around to using all those berries in my fridge, so expect more posts to come soon :)

this morning i made a raspberry and almond clafoutis, which was awesomely eggy and custard-like. i know typically clafoutis uses cherries, but seeing as how i had a ton of raspberries lying around and i'm MUCH too lazy to go out and buy a bunch of fresh cherries and pit them MYSELF, well, a girl's gotta do what a girl's gotta do! plus, raspberries and almonds are a classic flavor combination, and i just happened to have the right amount of almond flour left over.

i tried sifting a little powdered sugar over the top but it kinda just melted into the custard center. also, i took the finished pictures after they cooled down and the middle sunk a little. still good, though! :D

right after i put them in the oven

nice and bubbly right after i took them out of the oven :p

the one thing i regret is waiting for them to cool down... they probably would have tasted bomb right out of the oven, but i had things to attend to today, and places to go!

today my cousin, my sister, and i all went to the Shoppes at Chino Hills, which is a pretty cool outdoor mall-- it has a bunch of stores from an organic produce store (with a bunch of free samples!) to an H&M. also, New York & Company was having a sale and i bought my first dress of the summer! yayy :D

as for the rest of this Memorial Day weekend, tomorrow the family is going to have a little bbq, and monday i'm planning on going hiking with my cousin. also, since this weekend is supposed to be super hott, my goal this weekend (and the rest of the summer) is to try and tan my pasty white legs -___- i already started today by wearing a skirt while shopping outdoors, and mostly they just turned red but it's getting there! hopefully by the end of this summer they'll be nice and golden brown :)

blackberry ganache tartlets, almond biscotti, and reasons i don't study for finals

2010-05-25T19:58:00.000-07:00

last week was elaine's birthday, and as part of her gift i wanted to bake her something, as per tradition. last year it was a strawberry tartlet, and this year it's chocolate galore! eee! the other part of her gift was a very embarrassing picture of us at prom that i had blown up and printed to almost poster size, and i would show that here too if i didn't find it so ridiculously horrifying haha (in retrospect i probably should have had someone else do my makeup for prom -____-)

but ANYWAY, here it is: almond biscotti that i brushed with chocolate and mini blackberry ganache tartlets. sooooo good :p
gettin' nice & golden in the oven. before i put chocolate on it my brother said he thought it was garlic bread -__- i GUESS i could understand that assumption just based on the pictures, but did it SMELL like garlic? huh?!
after i brushed them with chocolate :)
i guess it's berry season? i went to HMart this weekend to buy some bulgogi for my mom (which is RIDONKULOUSLY good btw) and guess what? 6 oz packages of blackberries there were 2 for $1!!! my first thought when i saw this was "WTF? WWHAT IIS THIS?!!!" mainly because Fresh & Easy was selling the same amount for $4, which at the time, i thought was a good deal. WTF kind of shieet are you trying to pull, Fresh & Easy?! also, raspberries! how i long for you so! HMart was selling 12 oz for $1.79!! Stater Bros. sells the same amount for $8!! so since i obviously stumbled upon a treasure chest of some sort, i grabbed as much as i could get, and now my refrigerator is chock-full of berries. "but what are you going to do with said berries, elaine?" WELL, i plan on making something delicious. that's what.

as for school, right now i'm kinda crawling along finals week. i had a 3 hour period between my classes today so i could study for my Anthro final, but i just COULDN'T do it. i really tried. basically i opened up my Nonverbal Behavior book and immediately fell asleep. i tried this twice, and fell asleep twice. it's boring; go figure. this morning i took my menu planning final (which i only somewhat regret not really studying for haha) and i have my Baking 2 final tomorrow, which i don't really need to study too much for since it's open note/open book; i figure since i did pretty well on the previous tests and quizzes that it shouldn't be too bad this time since i have the notes right in front of me.

finals always seems to come along when i feel totally drained and sooo so so much over it, whatever "it" is. i've noticed that every semester is pretty much like that. so i'll study at the beginning and throughout the semester, but once it's coming to an end i pretty much just lose interest. sighh. maybe someday i'll find a lecture class that can keep me attentive throughout the entire semester. but until then, i probably won't ever do anything more than cram sessions for finals :p

honey panna cotta with mixed berry coulis and a note on mother's day

2010-05-11T21:47:00.000-07:00

for those of you who don't know, mother's day is the busiest day of the year in the restaurant industry. yep, even busier than valentine's day! and in an attempt to avoid all the crowds and long waiting periods just for a table at a restaurant, i wanted to cook a nice breakfast for my mom instead. this has been a long-running tradition for a few years now, although it's somewhat of a feat when my mom sets her alarm to 5:30 every morning :/ these are the challenges i encounter in life!

anyway, to make the breakfast a little more memorable (no Denny's specials here!), i wanted to end the meal with something light in texture with a good balance of sweetness, creaminess, and tartness. so, for dessert i decided to make a honey panna cotta topped with a blackberry and strawberry coulis. sooo good :p

i went to Goodwill and browsed around for some cute little glasses to show off the layers of the dessert, and i found these stemless red wine glasses and little dessert glasses for $1 each. pretty good bargain for something i intend to use for future food presentations :)

panna cotta is Italian for "cooked cream." the texture is like a custard, except i think most of the recipes don't use eggs. the honey definitely gave it such a good flavor. it kind of makes me sad to look at these pictures because i wish i had one right now...
all eight of them, looking super glossy and sexy ;) i garnished each one with a strawberry quarter, a couple of blackberries, and a mint leaf from the plant we have growing in the backyard.
and here's the rest of the breakfast table scape i prepared: scrambled eggs with cheese, peppers, and scallions, salsa, cubed watermelon and strawberries (which i originally planned to turn into a nice slushie, but after cutting it i realized it had a LOT of seeds in it -___-), and carnitas i made myself. the carnitas were BOMB. and they weren't that difficult to make, either! i pretty much just put everything in the slow cooker the night before, and the next morning when i woke up i could smell it, and it was awesome. we also had some corn tortillas to make tacos with. aimee was supposed to make maseca pancakes, but she didn't wake up early enough, and she just tends to be grumpy in the morning when you tell her to do stuff :/

after going to church, the fambam and i went over to my cousin's house because they had a little lunch/dinner shindig going on (for which i made potato salad and my sis made rice crispy treats) and we pretty much spent the rest of the afternoon into nighttime over there. i spent some of that time in awe of my cousin's garden in their backyard, and also got to watch their rabbit just sit there and do nothing particularly cute... my rabbit can beat up that rabbit, good! >:D

speaking of gardens, mine is a work in progress! since we can't technically plant anything in the ground, i'm planning on having a small raised garden bed, and i already bought some plants from my school's horticulture sale last week (woot for $1 plants!). so far i have a cherry tomato plant, heirloom tomato plant, a strawberry plant, thyme, basil, parsley, sage, and mint. hopefully they'll all still be alive once the actual garden is built!

rose milk tea ice cream and moving woes

2010-05-01T22:43:00.000-07:00

so, if you haven't heard yet, moving kinda sucks. but you know what doesn't suck? ice cream :p

there's this cafe along colima called La Kaffa, and one time (years ago) i went there and had their rose milk tea, which was (of course) bombtastic. since then, i've been trying to find other ways to incorporate that rose flavour, but haven't really come up with anything blog-worthy until now.

i present to you: rose milk tea ice cream, a concoction that i actually came up with myself! (tee hee!) i'm kind of excited because this has been the only actual noteworthy and successful dessert for which i came up with my own recipe.

mmmm. this stuff was pretty good, especially if you are into floral-y flavours. if you look close enough, you can see a few black flecks from the tea leaves that didn't get strained out.
as garnish i added a meringue cookie that i made from the leftover egg whites (as if it needed more sugar) and a dried rosebud just so it looks a little prettier (total non-functioning garnish, i know. whatevs! don't tell me how to live my life!)
the entire freezing process took WAAAY longer than i thought it would, as i don't have an ice cream machine, and right in the middle of freezing it, my refrigerator decides to poop out :/ so, instead of this being a one day process, it ends up being a 2.5 day process. but whatever. the outcome was worth the wait! :)
it was super rich and creamy, and the rose flavour was just the right strength, although it could have used more tea leaves in it. ohhh wells. another good thing: my family actually liked it! yay! usually when i come up with things that are out of the norm, they don't really warm up to it, but this time they did, which was pretty awesome. plus, i'm totally psyched that i actually made ice cream at all, as i've always been discouraged from trying it before because i didn't have an ice cream maker.

as for moving, (big sighh) i kind of didn't want to make an entry about it at all because this whole process has been one big disappointment after another, but i guess i have to update you guys about it somehow. we basically got a downgrade. the house is almost the same size as the last one, but it's like everything is slightly smaller than in our old house. plus, even though the ONE thing that i was looking forward to was getting my own room, my parents said i can't have one. sighhhhhh. this was also after a couple days of me arguing and complaining to them about it. they also said i could have a garden in the back, which now, apparently, i can't. lamesauce. the backyard is super small anyway. and to top it all off, i timed myself driving to school on friday, and the extra distance from here to school added TWENTY MINUTES to my commute. and that was on a friday, when there is typically less traffic than the rest of the week. -____-

okay, well, i really don't even want to think about it right now. let's just think about something pleasant. like ice cream :p

strawberry and white wine terrine

2010-04-18T19:32:00.000-07:00

after a couple days of having ice cream for dessert (damn you, 10 for $10 deals!) i decided maybe it was time for something with a lighter (or at least something that seemed deceptively light) taste.

hence, strawberry and white wine terrine.

i know, i know. there are 7 calories per gram of alcohol. whatevs, you guys! in my mind, jello is light, no matter what it's made from. besides, i've wanted to make a fruit terrine for a while, mainly after seeing this beauty in one of my mom's Good Housekeeping magazines years ago (the colors!). so after realizing i had a box of gelatin and a package of strawberries just sitting in the fridge (because for some reason my family doesn't seem to like strawberries unless they're put IN something else or ON something else), i decided it was time to give it a go. i haven't really gotten a good chance to work with gelatin by myself anyway.

i made both a mini terrine (using a ramekin) and a large one in a loaf pan, for the pamilia :)

side view, so you can see both the strawberry (red) and the white wine (clear) layers.

aerial view. note to self: learn how to plate, woman! i guess i just got lazy this time and plopped it on the bowl. if i were to go all out, i would probably have added some chantilly cream and a mint leaf on top, and maybe a strawberry coulis on the side (also, if i were to go all out i probably wouldn't have been impatient while unmolding it and the edges would probably look more crisp haha).

yummm :p the wine taste actually wasn't as strong as i thought it would be (because apparently i haven't acquired a taste for wine yet), and it actually tasted pretty damn good. one thing i also needed for this was more strawberries -___- i only had one box, and the recipe called for 2 pints + 1/2 cup of strawberries so i ended up stealing a few from my uncle (shh!). oh well. i think it tasted totally fine, and it sure as hell did NOT need 6+ hours to set, like the recipe said. sighh.

as for my life, there's not much to really update on that you guys don't already know. we haven't moved yet, although we're trying to get ready for that (albeit slowly). i have a couple of projects due in the next coming weeks, and guess what? it turns out that working ahead of time (as opposed to procrastinating, which is what i usually do) really pays off. one of my baking 2 projects is due this wednesday and i pretty much had it finished last month. yay for not panicking last minute! :) i also have an anthro and psych project due, but i don't even wanna get started on that crap. basically, anthro = the death of my GPA. hopefully i'll do well enough on tuesday's test; i don't want to drop out of the class because i won't have enough credits to be a full-time student and i don't want to try and find another class so late in the semester. arghh. apparently the later in the semester it is, the lazier i am. :/

raiding the library and an update on moving

2010-04-12T14:25:00.000-07:00

on saturday my sister and i went to the Walnut library for the first time in FOREVER, and they had a bunch of books out in the front for their april book sale. guess what my new source for cookbooks is? $1 a book? hell yes. as i didn't have any cash on me at the time, my sis agreed to get me one book and after looking through every single page and picture, i finally decided today on what i wanted to make first.

flourless chocolate cake :p

a close-up of the magnificently rich and chocolatey goodness, dusted with cocoa powder and topped with caramelized sugar. when we ate it, the inside was still warm and gooey, just as god intended chocolate cakes to be :p

all six cakes, with random sugar designs. i baked them in little ramekins this time instead of the regular 8" pan the recipe asked for, not only because i thought they would look cuter, but also because i can't seem to find my cake pan... this seems to be one of the disadvantages of moving and packing things: i can never find what i need when i need it :/

oh well. smaller things look cuter anyway :)

i'm so glad we just happened to have all the ingredients for this. plus, it totally made up for my partial disaster when i tried to make Lengua yesterday (must find grandma's recipe!)

as for how things are going with the moving: we found a place! yay! it's further from my school! WHAT? dammit. yeah, that's kinda how things have been going lately. i wasn't really fussing with my parents about the whole moving thing in the first place, and all i really asked for was a place that was somewhat closer to my school. so of course, the opposite ended up happening, and now i have 10 miles added on to my 28 mile commute -___- at least my parents seem to be confident in the new house, and they said it was better than the one we live in now (it's in north west covina).

so far i haven't actually seen the place (i've only seen pictures), but i've been trying to look on the brighter side of the whole situation (like how i'll finally have my own room again teehehee). plus, i guess i shouldn't be complaining too much about the distance. i know a girl who goes to my school once a week and lives in Riverside, and last semester i met a guy who goes there and lives in Chino. so i mean, it could be worse.

for now, i just want this all to be over with. we'll start actually moving our stuff in the new place on the 23rd, and my school semester is over at the end of may. it was raining this morning, and now i just want it to be summer already :)

movin' on up + spring break

2010-03-29T14:42:00.001-07:00

saturday was my cousin's going away party, and we pretty much spent the whole day just cooking and preparing for it. she's going to teach english in japan for a whole year! i'm just thinking about how weird it will be to go and do all that and then return back to cali; whether things will be the same as before and you'll feel at home again, or whether in the span of one year things end up changing dramatically. we all seem to be at a point in our lives right now where it's hard to maintain a level of comfort because of the lack of stability with all these things. but that's life i guess; change is inevitable, and in the long run all we can hope for is that it will be for the better.

but ANYWAY, i spent thursday and friday making a cake for her goodbye party, even though they ended up eating it the next morning (i would rather they eat it sober than drunk anyway haha).

an aerial view of the cake. it says "sayonara stacey" in japanese. it's layers of vanilla sponge cake and a raspberry/strawberry mousse, all covered in chocolate ganache and then dusted with powdered sugar :) i wish i had a better picture of it, but oh wells. pictures never do my work justice!

i made a little diagram of the cross section of the cake to show the layers, just so you can see all my hard work haha. yay for free imitation photoshop!

anyway, i didn't actually get to eat the cake, but i was snacking on the scraps while i was making it haha. it didn't disappoint! (or that's what i thought at least).

as for my family moving, we still haven't found a place yet! what?! yeah. we've visited quite a few homes, and all the ones that seem like a good deal always have some sort of catch. we have even less time now that someone bought our house last week. they have a couple days left to back out of the offer, but that still doesn't give us much time. sighhh. i wish all this stuff wasn't such a big hassle! all i can say is, thank god for spring break. the first thing i did today was sleep in. it wasn't as delicious a sleep as i was hoping (my sis ended up waking me up early because she had school and she was getting ready) but at this point, just being able to stay in bed beyond 8 is still pretty awesome. i've already made a couple of plans for the coming days, and so far spring break seems fairly promising :)

one to be trifled with

2010-03-21T19:37:00.000-07:00

today my dad took us to see the house they were considering getting in pomona, and geebuz that place was GHE-TTO. and not even ghettofabulous. just straight-up pitbulls in every yard, with an old tire place right behind it. people also seemed to get the impression that they could dump their stuff there, so in the back of the house there were piles of junk, including some old lumber and a baby carriage! really? the place wasn't even done being built. how can we expect to move there soon if they're not even done building it?! sighhhh.... here's hoping we move somewhere that i actually feel safe.

on a slightly less frustrating note, my baking midterm is this wednesday, and we'll have to make buttercream icing, dark chocolate mousse, lemon bouches, and write "happy birthday" in chocolate (and hopefully that's it). so in preparation for that, i practiced writing with chocolate today (even though for some reason it seemed that the more i practiced the worse it got) and then later used that chocolate to make the mousse.

since i had all this chocolate mousse, plus a vanilla cake from class that i kept in the freezer, plus a bunch of berries that i had to use for fear of them getting bad before i could, i made a faux-berry trifle (did you like my little pun in the title of this post? haha).

raspberries on top, a.k.a. the fruit that never fails to make my desserts look elegant (even though they really aren't haha)
really need to work on my layers, especially since i've never made a trifle before (who knew it would be so hard?). layers, from bottom to top: chocolate mousse, vanilla cake, mousse, strawberries, cake, mousse, raspberries.
note to self: don't put mousse in the fridge if you plan on working with it later! it stiffened up in the fridge because of the chocolate and was too hard to spread a smooth layer of it, hence the oddness of the layering here. also, apparently i forgot to soak the cake in syrup/coffee/whatever, so that part was a little dry. at this point, i don't care! it tasted bomb, and i wish i could eat more of it without feeling ashamed of myself.

on another note, this whole thing with me trying to lose weight is not really working out :( since we basically had to clear everything out of our house, that also meant that we had to take out all the exercise equipment, AND the weighing scale. and even with that gone, i can LITERALLY FEEL MYSELF GAINING WEIGHT. definitely not a good sign. dammit. why is food so tempting? why am i so weak?!! i need to work about a million times harder now at the rate i'm going.

things i need to save up for:

2010-03-18T19:49:00.000-07:00

-a good camera

-a large bag that will actually fit all the things i need plus a change of clothes

-new flats because my last pair were ruined in the rain :(

-tart pans with removable bottoms

-gel food coloring

-circle cookie cutter set

-new spatula that WON'T melt

-Wii fit

-bikini for summahtime

-school

-the future

p.s. guess who got a 25% tip at the restaurant today? YO.
aaand for dinner tonight i made chicken in a brandy and mushroom cream sauce, saffron rice pilaf, and an orange, radish, and mint salad :p

some big news + actual pictures of food :)

2010-03-14T19:06:00.000-07:00

so here goes: my family and i are moving! yay? eh. i don't really have too much of a problem with moving right now as much as i did when my family proposed moving back when i was in high school. mainly because we're not really planning on moving far (my parents were looking at brea and pomona and buena park) and i can actually drive now, so coming back to walnut wouldn't be that hard. mostly all this stuff is just a hassle with all the realtors and prospective buyers coming by to see the house.

so far we've moved a bunch of our stuff into storage and cleaned up the entire house, which kinda sucks because now i don't really know where anything is anymore... over the next couple of months, we're going to have people just coming in to look at the house on random days. that means during the time that someone could come, i can't cook, i can't nap, i can't work out or shower, basically i can't do anything that will let me relax. these times were all designated during my prime relaxation time! (8-3 during weekdays?! wtf?!) sighh. while people were coming in today, though, i was able to make a little something with all the fruits we bought at Costco yesterday ($5 for 12oz of raspberries? BOMBTASTIC).

"healthy" mini fruit tartlets. i've determined that they're healthy because not only are they covered in fruit, but instead of going all out and making a pastry cream filling from eggs and cream, i just used some vanilla yogurt as filling (fine... you caught me. i was really just too lazy to make the pastry cream. but i have my reasons!).

things i need to work on: presentation. i need to figure out how to arrange these fruits a little nicer because i didn't realize how small the actual tart was (it was actually so small that i couldn't fit a single, regular-sized strawberry on it). also, i think technically the actual filling isn't supposed to show.

and the tart dough. pfft. i need to stop following food blogs just because they look pretty. i got the recipe for the tart dough i used here from another blog, and the taste was just really disappointing (to me, at least. my family kinda just scarfed it down, so i guess they don't really care). the dough was too gummy to work with properly, and also, it actually rose in the oven! tart dough shouldn't do that!

all in all, they tasted okay. this whole thing was mostly just to practice my fruit arrangements and because i was bored. i wish i would have had some glaze or powdered sugar to put on top. i guess the health/convenience factor with the yogurt was good too, and it was nice just to have a mini dessert bite instead of a huge slice of cake. hopefully there will be more food pictures to come in the future! happy pi day :D

"it's hard to have a good tomorrow if you're always thinking about yesterday."

2010-03-08T22:32:00.000-08:00

although i do feel as if i've taken some positive steps toward my future, sometimes it's hard not to look into the past. a lot of times i try to figure out what happened, pinpoint exactly where things went wrong. this tends to always bite me in the ass in some form or another, because eventually i realize that what's done is done, and there's no going back. before i do anything, i need to start asking myself, "is this something i will regret later?"

actually, wasn't that one of my new year's resolutions? not to act on impulse? good lord, i always thought that i was just about as bland as it gets, but apparently i DO do things on impulse, stupid things at that. i hate it when i realize that i've done something stupid waaay beyond the point of no return. i actually tend to plan and think through a lot of things in my life like what i'm going to wear tomorrow or the practicality of buying one thing over another. unfortunately, the things that i tend not to think through are those that are much more important and would really make a big difference in my life had i done something else.

at times it can be difficult for me to differentiate between impulse and spontaneity. i suppose these are the times that i really need to think through, but then, would it still be spontaneous? fuuuck. i need to go to sleep. i'll think about it in the morning.

in the mean time, i'll be here, laying in bed, trying to get over the past and how things should have happened. i guess all i can do for now is just REMEMBER these former mistakes and try not to let it happen again.

p.s. for dinner tonight i made a chicken breast roulade with sage and ham, a white wine sauce with sauteed mushrooms, risotto, and a spinach salad. i really think i need to start saving money and invest in a GOOD camera so i can take pics and show you guys what i make :p

i'm workin' on it!

2010-03-01T20:35:00.000-08:00

so for the past 3 weeks or so i've been "working out" 2-3 times a week, mostly just running/walking on the treadmill and doing squats and stuff. this is my awkward attempt to take better care of myself haha. i didn't really work to lose the weight that i previously lost, and after all the stress of winter taking it's toll, i hit a "plateau" of sorts and actually started gaining a little weight again (oh nooes!!!).

so here's my goal: to lose at least 1 pound a week. i know this doesn't really seem like a lot, but with all the food i make both at home and at school (1 whole cake every week?! are you kidding me?!!) it's still going to be a challenge for me. besides, i'm not too sure about how much results i should expect after only working out 2 or 3 times a week. plus, my mom keeps buying ice cream! what the hell, mom?! i'm not going to be "dieting" exactly, mostly just reducing my portion sizes and trying to eat more fruits and vegetables. everything in moderation.

i'm really hoping that all that running will help me lose weight instead of just helping me gain muscle, which is what it looks like it's doing right now (my calf muscles are HUGE).

1 lb a week means that by the end of june i should lose at least 16 lbs. not too bad, right?

today for dinner i made breaded baked tilapia fillets and a spinach and romaine salad with radishes, bell peppers, tomatoes, green onions, and a spicy avocado dressing. mmm :p

le sigh

2010-02-11T23:03:00.000-08:00

you know that feeling when there's just soo much going on at once, that you don't really know where to begin? yeah. that kind of explains why i haven't posted anything in a while. so maybe i'll just go on a short hiatus, until i figure out alla this shit. things right now are way too confusing.

on a lighter note, dinner tonight was bombtastic. i made apple-roasted pork with garlic and parmesan risotto and a cucumber salad. hell yes.

baking rut + feeling a little sick

2010-01-28T23:10:00.000-08:00

so after failing to make yeast rolls THREE TIMES* on sunday and having a stranger basically yell at me over the phone for calling about a craigslist ad that asked for cake decorators (even though they didn't say they wanted professional experience), i've felt the need recently to validate myself as a baker. soooo after a trip to costco to buy their 3 lb bag of almonds, and with my brand new food processor, i decided to take things into my own hands.

wednesday: i attempt to make french almond macarons for the first time with the help of my cousin. the taste and texture is there, but the looks are totally wrong. too big, cracks going along the top, and no feet to them. here's what they're supposed to look like if you don't know what they are: http://www.mytartelette.com/2009/08/recipe-coffee-chicory-macarons.html
fancy, right?

thursday: take the leftover ganache filling from the macarons and make espresso truffles coated in crushed almonds. okay, not really baking, but delicious nonetheless (this also was a lot less troublesome because i've made it before hahaha). mmm... truffles.... i also made a huge batch of spaghetti for my sis' bday (again, not baking, but whatever! get off my case, man!).

friday: attempt #2 at macarons; this time, with mint chocolate ganache filling. *drool* also, take the leftover egg yolks from the macarons and make creme brulee with the new ramekins i bought thursday. creme brulee!! coconut creme brulee!!! at the end of the day, the macarons are a flop, again. and actually worse than the first time! *somehow i managed to make them completely hollow :/

saturday: actually get to eat the creme brulee, as we were celebrating my sis' bday with the cousins by eating at BJ's. it would've tasted MUCH better if i didn't feel so sick. a little bit of nausea + headache + stomachaches + large amount of food = probably not a good idea. i've been laying in bed for a while now because getting up just makes me feel gross. but i DID go to Williams Sonoma today and got my new Global Chef's Knife! woot! thank god for that catering job, even if it was only for 3 days, because for those 3 days i was makin' bank!

tomorrow i'm going back to the shelter and on tuesday school starts again, and i'm definitely not looking forward to things like having to come an hour early just to scavenge for parking. sigh. these next 2 weeks are gonna be rough.

*goddamn you, bakery science, for being so difficult!

bittersweet

2010-01-24T23:29:00.000-08:00

things are a little weird for me right now. there seems to be some things happening that are bad, but at the same time there are some things going on that are good; it''s so confusing!! what the hell!! is it too much to ask for a little security these days?!

let me just elaborate on this: just as i'm getting more and more comfortable in my relationship with the bf, even to the point where i'd actually tell my parents about him (which i thought would be a LOOONG time from now), he dumps me. and in my attempt to remain friends with him, i volunteered at the shelter today so we could cook together, and guess what? no tension, no awkwardness (to me at least; idk what he himself was thinking). we actually worked pretty damn well when we worked together, which was definitely a big surprise. so it totally sucks that we broke up, but it's totally awesome that we can still be friends and joke around and stuff. i really don't know how to feel about all this! sighhh. life is waaay too unpredictable.

also, THANK GOD for the Rescue Mission. if i had never worked there, i would never have met all these great people, i would never have gotten all this experience in high volume cooking, and i would never have gotten that weekend job last month and made that $500 (which i am planning on spending soon on a new kick-ass chef's knife). all last semester i was kind of moping around about not having an actual job, but the rescue mission is totally awesome, even if i don't get paid. plus if i make a mistake, they're pretty forgiving about it, and none of that money comes out of my pocket! aaaand since i STILL don't have a regular part-time job this semester (YET) i'll be volunteering there every sunday, which i'm really looking forward to :)

life at home is okay too. we're starting to get everything settled with my uncle's death, like closing his bank accounts and stuff. in a few weeks we're planning on going on a boat in Long Beach so we can scatter his ashes at sea, which is what he always wanted.

my school starts again next week, and hopefully things won't be incredibly stressful. i have classes tuesday to friday, but my classes on tuesday, wednesday, and thursday all end around 6pm! sighhh. why do all the classes required for me have to have such shitty hours?? ohh well. beggars can't be choosers. i got all the classes i needed for this semester (for the most part), so i guess i shouldn't complain.

so what's today's obvious-but-realized lesson? life is unpredictable. deal with it, woman! it's what all the cool kids are doing these days :)

done and done!

2010-01-19T01:07:00.000-08:00

so i did it. i told my parents and my sister about james, and they seem pretty accepting of it, which is all i could ever ask for. it's pretty awesome actually, to get all of this off of my chest. they actually didn't make as big a deal of it as i thought they would (no one even asked me what his name was except for my mom haha).

i've been contemplating redecorating my side of the room (or the wall at least). right now it's mostly covered in stuff from high school and some drawings of the stuff i've made, and i'm planning on taking a lot of that stuff down and just making a couple of large paintings and putting those up instead. also, i finally get to put up that kick-ass drawing that james gave me for christmas (i've had it stashed away for a while now because he signed his name at the bottom and i was just scared of getting caught!). but now i have nothing to worry about!

there's only 2 weeks of winter break left but it's finally starting to get better and better. awesome. :)

should i...?

2010-01-14T22:55:00.000-08:00

i've been wondering lately if i should tell my parents about my boyfriend. i'm certain what we have is a serious relationship, and to be honest, things would be a lot easier on me (if they ALLOW me to be with him, that is). for instance, i always have to lie and tell my parents that i'm going out with my friends when in reality, i'm just going to church with him. so on a day when i'd go to church with him and come home late (it's usually 7:30-10), what my parents are probably thinking is that i'm out "gallavanting" with my friends late at night (as my mom would say).

honestly, i'm kinda getting tired of always having to come up with lame excuses and made-up plans when really, i'm not doing anything too crazy.

i've been trying to think of the pros and cons of this plan, but i'm still not entirely sure what the correct decision would be. any suggestions/comments???

somehow managing...

2010-01-06T12:17:00.001-08:00

...to be productive this winter break. so far i've sewn one sweater top, one skirt, and today (or tomorrow) i will attempt to make a dress. as for cooking/baking, a couple days ago i made mini scones with whipped cream and a blackberry brandy sauce. awesomenessss. today i am attempting to make miso braised pork for lunch, which i'm hoping turns out okay (it's simmering away at this very moment). pictures of the stuff i've sewn are to come later, and hopefully the camera won't make them look so crappy.

as for my personal life, winter break so far has been kind of bittersweet. it's awesome that grace could come over, even though we didn't end up getting tattoos (hahaha), but there's been a lot of other stuff going on that's been keeping me from being happy/normal/myself. family troubles. relationship problems. i need to find a way to work these things out, or at the very least, make them a little better.

school starts in a couple of weeks, and i hope that the rest of my winter break doesn't continue in this same manner :/

2010

2010-01-01T15:16:00.000-08:00

is it just me, or does New Year's always feel like the loneliest day of the year? i swear, it even feels lonelier than Valentine's when you don't have a significant other. i want to be with your guys, i want to be with the bf, and i AT LEAST want to be with the cousins (new year's in las vegas? LAMESAUCE). i pretty much just spent the night munching on unhealthy food, sitting around in some very uncomfortable underwear, waiting for the ball in NY to drop, and basically just being lazy as hell. is that really how i wanted to end 2009?

soooo, in my attempt to make this feel like the start of a new beginning, i shall make some resolutions for 2010.

NUMBAH ONE. get a job. a REGULAR job. while the 3-day thing was fun, it turns out i spend a lot more money than i thought -___-
TWO. practice practice PRACTICE all your shit, woman! i'm already starting to forget some of the stuff i learned in class, which is a big no no because in the culinary world, pretty much ALL of it applies to the real world.
THREE. lose some weight. 2009 was a good start (yay for losing 30 lbs!), but i'm sure as hell not done with all of that. goal: get abs by summertime!!!
FOUR. try to spend as much time as possible with the ones you love, because we learned in 2009 that they're not going to be there forever. frau rovell once told us that putting flowers on someone's grave isn't going to replace the time we lost with that person, and she's so right.
FIVE. learn to control things like impulses. i've learned recently that when i get really impulsive i don't even realize what i'm doing until it's already done. that's a BIG no no, that's how people get hurt, and that's how i end up hurting myself.

so there you have it. 5 goals for 2010; here's to somehow managing not to break them. i hope ya'll have a wonderful and prosperous year. i love you guys :)

incredibly tired

2009-12-19T00:14:00.000-08:00

tonight was my first night of actual, PAID work. yay mee!!!! it's not a regular job (it's only for 3 days) but at least it's a start! i was helping cater and serve on a yacht in Newport for their annual Christmas yacht parade. A FREAKIN' YACHT, PEOPLE. the yacht went around the area and blasted the christmas music and we got to see all the amazing christmas lights in the area. even though there were a few mishaps, it was still an awesome experience. sighh... you can probably already tell these people are makin' bank (uhh, champagne vinaigrette for their salads? hell yeah, someone's making money). don't worry, elaine. you'll get there someday! (talking to myself sometimes makes me feel better).

i have 2 more nights of this, and then i will officially be on winter break. thank god, because i am freakin' tired. the work wasn't even strenuous or anything, it's just that i'm still so exhausted from school that adding on a few more hours in the days following may not have been the brightest idea (i came in at 4 today and left at 11 -___-).

in other news, i finally finished my finals!!! woot WOOT!! also, apparently my art teacher liked my drawings enough to ask me if he could put them in the art showcase until next semester, which is totally fine with me because i probably would have just thrown them all in the trash anyway. eughh.

so that's pretty much what's been going on with me in the past couple of days. monday will be my first official day of winter break, so HOPEFULLY i'll be able to see gracie poo and the gang sometime soon, because i LOVES ALLA YA'LL. <3

decemBURRRR

2009-12-15T19:51:00.000-08:00

tomorrow i am officially HALFWAY done with finals. i still have my nutrition final, first aid final, beginning drawing final, and i have to turn in my journals for directed practice. i seriously cannot believe it's december already, even though we're already halfway through it!! tomorrow i plan on buying all the stuff i need to make christmas presents, and hopefully i'll be done with all of that in time for christmas :)

as for my love life, i am totally glad i have james. BUUTTT what's lame is that i just found out i can't see him for 2 weeks, which totally sucks cuz i had our wednesday date all planned out and ready for tomorrow. i even bought a new dress!!! sighhhh. i only really get to be with him once a week, so a 2 week break pretty much blows. on the plus side though, this gives me more time to finish his christmas present. hopefully he'll like it :)

on another good note, i seriously love buying dresses now that i've lost some weight. now all i need is some money to pay for it all... i also really REALLY need some money because i'm really scared my parents are gonna freak out when they see my phone bill; technically i'm not supposed to be talking on the phone at all (except for emergencies) but i've been talking to james for half an hour every night almost. hopefully things won't be too bad *wishful thinking... i need a job, dammmit!!

sighhhh. so far december has been filled with a crapload of crazy emotions, on both ends of the spectrum. hopefully the rest of december will be filled with emotions on the GOOD side of that spectrum, cuz i could really use it right now.

it's going to be a long week :l

2009-12-05T23:03:00.000-08:00

last thursday when i came home from work i found out my uncle died in the Philippines. he was my dad's big brother, and my cousins' dad.

i think i'm all cried out on this one... at least until the funeral. yesterday morning i was crying so hard on my way to school that eventually i just turned around and came back home. i told my sister class had been canceled.

it definitely hurts. i grew up with my cousins; they're like brothers and sisters to me (lord knows i talk to them a hell of a lot more than i do my actual brother). i visited them today before they headed off to PI. we talked about the last time we saw him, all our funny memories with him, and what we're going to do for his birthday this year since it's in 2 weeks. it was good to know we could all laugh about things like his horrible sense of fashion (last time i saw him he was wearing a twilight shirt that he bought for $2 from hot topic). my dad and one of my aunts is with him in PI now.

i wasn't sure if i wanted to make a post about this but it's definitely one of the biggest things affecting my life right now. yesterday i didn't even want to go on facebook because most of my news feed was people giving their condolences to my cousins. tonight i was forced to go on FB because my dad wanted me to find pictures of my uncle that we could put in a slideshow for his viewing. i'm not even sure if i can go to school or work next thursday or friday because i'm supposed to help my grandma make food for the viewing after they bring the body back to the states. i'm worried about my grandma and how she's taking this all.

yes, he's in a better place now. by next week he'll be back home and with his family, where he belongs. he was a really good father, brother, and uncle, and a good man all over. i'm really going to miss him.

to grace: i know you're coming back soon, and my intention was to get our tattoos done this saturday, but that might not happen for obvious reasons. hopefully we can arrange something sometime soon.

11:11

2009-11-30T23:11:00.000-08:00

i wish i were happy. sometimes i just stare at the time, waiting for 11:11, just so i can make that one wish. i can't even remember how long i've been making this same wish, but it's always been the same: "i wish i were happy... please." sometimes i'll throw in the "please" if i'm feeling extra shitty. i don't even know who i'm asking this from. is it blasphemous to believe wishing something at a certain time of day can make something come true?

i think about my life; is it so sad that i feel i have to wish for some kind of happiness? no, it's really not bad at all. i have a loving, caring family, with whom i spent an awesome thanksgiving. i don't have a paying job, but i'm getting to know the volunteers and residents at work more and more, and i love it. when i started working there i never realized how much i would enjoy it, and now i feel like i can't just leave this place once the internship is over. i only work about 12 hours a week, but i certainly feel as if it has become a second home for me. i even get to spend a couple days a week with a sweet guy. he really is sweet. school's not even that difficult. by some act of God i've been able to maintain a gpa above 3.5 while barely doing any work or studying. 5 classes and an internship shouldn't be so easy. i may not have a lot of money, but i can certainly maintain some sort of life off of what i do have. i realize life's not as tough as i made it out to be. my life, at least.

so maybe it's not necessary for me to make this wish anymore. maybe now i'm just doing it out of habit, a habit i should probably break.

i love you guys :)

a cause for reflection: gender relations

2009-11-12T22:17:00.000-08:00

originally i was going to title this entry "sexism" but i think the problem is much bigger than that. honestly, before i left high school, i never really thought about the way men treat women or women treat men. i mean, it wasn't really one of my biggest concerns at the time; i guess i just never noticed the difference before. but now the subject seems to be more and more obvious and increasingly confusing/frustrating for me, as it feels like an entirely new topic for me.

BECAUSE it feels so new and confusing (more often in a negative way), i haven't really formed a strong opinion on the whole subject. just bear with me here: without looking it up, think of YOUR definition of sexism. so when a man defends a woman in an argument BECAUSE she is a woman, is that not sexism? or when a man helps a woman with her load of work because the so-called lady "needs" help, is that not sexism? so if a guy treats me nicely or offers to help me out or anything like that just because i HAPPEN to be of the opposite sex, i never know if i should just accept the help and thank him, or if i should feel slightly offended because he is indirectly thinking of me as weaker.

because there is such a big difference in the ratio of men to women in my field, sometimes i can't help but let a little of the feminism come out. there was a time when i would enjoy the occasional sexual joke, and even partake in the joking; nowadays when i hear a guy tell a sexual joke in the kitchen it suddenly offends me, and even i am surprised at myself. because suddenly there is a BIG difference, and suddenly i realize i am no stranger to sexual harassment, and suddenly when i think of any male i feel slightly disgusted.

but i don't want it to be that way. i want to be able to meet a guy who i CAN'T think of as slightly repulsive. so why the FUCK is it SO HARD to find ANY guy like that when i'm practically surrounded by men/boys every day i go to school?! i mean, WHAT THE HELL?!! C'MON!! i don't want to be the feminist bitch in the kitchen (sooo cliche), but i definitely do NOT want to be thought of as weaker/less competent. if anyone can think of a solution for this, please, do share.

p.s. sorry for the little ranty-poo. obviously things have been getting a little weird for me lately, and when i say lately, i mean within the past year or so :/

backsies!!

2009-10-27T17:10:00.000-07:00

so i take it back. the last post i made (earlier today, actually) i said that i couldn't remember the last time i was really happy. but yeah, i take that back :)

perspective

2009-10-27T10:15:00.000-07:00

let's start with a little story:
yesterday i was walking into the library at school so i could reserve a study room for today, and this random, middle-aged man came up to me and told me to smile. he politely asked me if i was okay, if i had been done with midterms, things like that. this actually isn't the first time that some random person has come up to me and told me to smile.

my question is: is my happiness that transparent? or unhappiness for that matter?

so transparent, in fact, that a complete stranger can see what's going on? i thought about it for a while, and i came to the conclusion that i haven't really been happy in a long time. i mean, noticeably happy. not about small wins here and there like getting a good grade on a test or getting to school or home without any traffic on the way. i mean like, happy about my life, my situation, about what's going on with me. so as i mull over what i've really been feeling lately, the only conclusion that i have come to is this: all i've been feeling lately is tired. too tired to really stop and be happy or at least complacent about the little wins that i DO get from time to time. i mean, i can recognize when something good happens to me or when i get a brush of luck, but instead of being happy about it, i can't help but just feel a little stoic about it and just brush it off as if it were nothing.

being physically and mentally tired at the same time is VERY exhausting. like today. today i woke up at 5:30am to get to my class that starts at 8:20. between those two times, i go through about an hour and a half or so of rush hour traffic, and once i get to school i have to lug around all of my stuff, which today includes my uniform, my knives, my bag, my notebook, my laptop, and an 8-inch stainless steel frying pan. today i have two classes, one from 8:20-9:25, one from 11:30-4:10, and after that i have to work on a group project which i have no idea how long THAT will last, but i know it will feel like forever since one of my group members is seriously one of the most ANNOYING guys i've ever met. i'm not even going to bother talking about the mentally tired part, mainly because it is just wayyyy too much to type out. i know you know what i mean. and i know that today is FAR from being the longest day of the week for me.

so this is basically what it's going to be like for the rest of the semester for me [insert long sigh here].

back to happiness! i've determined that this is something i SERIOUSLY need to improve on. honestly, i can't even really remember the last time i just felt COMPLACENT about my life. at the moment i've just been accepting and taking everything as it is, which is probably not that good for me. right now i just feel like i need to get everything over with and out of the way.

prescription? probably a little perspective :l

p.s.: don't get me wrong, i know life can be a WHOLE lot worse than it is now. i'm not whining! i just wanted to put how i feel out there on the table.

p.p.s.: i'm using the school's wifi for the first time right now!! and yeah, it's suuper slow.

the best laid plans of mice and men...

2009-10-18T22:09:00.000-07:00

you know when you're about to see some crazy shit go down, but you don't really do anything about it, you just kinda stand there and watch? i knew i knew i knew that midterms were coming up, and yet here i am, cramming for 4 midterms all in one weekend. okay, so it's not really "crazy shit" but you know what i mean. speaking of crazy shit, though, the other day i passed by a car accident on the freeway and one of the people involved was walking to the other car, and i noticed she looked a lot like one of my classmates. lo and behold, she was missing from class that day! weird, huh? here's hoping she's okay.

who knows though? things never really come out the way you expect them too, and for some reason this is really true for me. one thing i have learned from this is that sometimes it works out for the best. let's say, for example, that there was a guy you were into, but you soon find out he doesn't exactly feel the same way about you. this is a good thing! because as it turns out, he's the kind of guy into drugs and alcohol and gambling and covering his body in tattoos. oh, and it turns out he's really into cheating on his girlfriend (who you DIDN'T know existed haha). but you see how it's a good thing nothing happened between us you two! it also teaches you some very valuable lessons, like not to trust a guy just cuz he's cute (actually, you should be even MORE wary of him because he is cute!).

what you really need to do is stop expecting every little thing to turn out the way you want it to, because that's just not gonna happen. for some reason i keep forgetting this, and it always seems to bite me in the ass... the other day i was cooking in class, and the recipe i was given seemed super easy. yay! i finished before the rest of the class. yay yay!! i put it on the presentation table and OH SHIT. sudden realization: it looks really ugly. i mean like, i've never seen a pasta salad look so ugly in my life, i should be ashamed of what i put on the table, god i hope no one notices the platter that has colors reminiscent of the Joker kinda ugly. it turns out it tasted pretty bland too (according to the chef -___-). clearly in this situation i just needed an ego check, because i assumed that anything i put out there would be orgasmically awesome (which it really wasn't).

but yeah. you get the point. no need for more examples of how ~~my life has kinda screwed up the past couple of weeks~~ life can be full of the unexpected! cuz you probably know a lot about that too. just know that there's always some kind of silver lining behind everything, even if it's just a life lesson that you should have learned a looong time ago.

goals, revisited

2009-10-11T22:40:00.000-07:00

ahhh bloggie. haven't seen ya in a while, but i guess that's my fault. i've abandoned you, and i am oh so sorry. you see, my time has been pretty much hijacked by school, among other things. and it doesn't help that i'm trudging through that time of the month where pretty much every part of my body hurts, it makes me sad to look in a mirror, and little things have the ability to FUCKING PISS ME OFF (like white lint balls stuck all over my black shirts... FUCKKK).

but anyway, that's not the point of this update. since it is midterms week (kinda), i wanted to go back and revisit the goals i had set for this semester. we're at the halfway point, meaning at this point i should be (at least) half the way to accomplishing my goals. so here goes:

make friends: at this point their more like acquaintences that i see once or twice or three times a week. but it's progress!! and at least i'm not just sitting quietly in the back of the room like before...
get a job: i'm halfway there!!! ahahah internship = unpaid job. so all i needs now is some money, which should be at least a little easier to get to now that i have SOME experience outside of school.
organize: ahhh hmmmm... i should probably be working on this one a little more :l admittedly, i'm kinda at the same point i was at when i wrote these goals. but i live a busy life, mang! hahha excuses...
lose weight: okay, okay. i haven't lost any weight so far, but i also didn't GAIN any weight, which is good! haha what i DID gain was muscle in the arms, which is mainly due to making such huge batches of food at the shelter -__- technically that counts as toning, right?!
make going to a school that is 28 miles away worth the trip: ahhhhhhhaha it's worth it on the good days, which i'm trying to have more of :)

so that's where i am with that so far. not QUITE there, but i'm reachin' for the stars with a jet plane, baby! whereas before all i had was a ladder haha

as for other parts of my life, i've had a few surprises (finding out my 21 year old cousin that i -kinda- grew up with is already married and has a 6 month old baby!) and making some new/different decisions (concerning a new interest of the male persuasion ;D). but such is life! and we just gotta do what we do! just remember not to over think things, cuz sometimes you just need to go with the flow <3

schedule!!!

2009-10-04T18:25:00.000-07:00

now that i actually have a schedule to give you guys (yes, i know it's the 6th week in), here goes:
(prepare your mind for a lot of hurtin')

Monday:
work 9am-1pm
class 230pm-645pm

Tuesday:
class 820am-925am,
1130am-1235pm
1pm-410pm

Wednesday:
class 1030am-140pm (this usually ends early tho)

Thursday:
class 820am-925am
work 11am-7pm (-___-)

Friday:
class 9am-330pm (this usually ends early too and there's a 30 min or so break in the middle)

so there you have it... the only days that are subject to change are wednesdays and thursdays; this just depends on if i really REALLY start to hate 8hr shifts on thursday, in which case i shall move a couple of hours to wednesday after class (but that depends...)

enjoy your week! :D
<3

just a note:

2009-09-28T22:45:00.000-07:00

so my new boss is a man with a really long ponytail. i'm assuming this is God's way of testing me!

-____-

2009-09-19T23:21:00.000-07:00

i feel like i should be blogging about what happened today, but to be honest i'm not even sure i want to think about the whole scenario anymore, because at this point it just makes me tired and angry. so let me just say, that there is no pleasant side to something as unpleasant as a car accident.

txt me later <3

whore d'oeuvres

2009-09-18T19:22:00.000-07:00

during my lunch break today i decided to browse around the cookbook section of my schools library, which was incredibly vaast (jk, it was only 2 shelves, but that's still wayy more than the rowland heights library!). i picked out two books and finally checked something out of that library, something i have been hesitant to do in the past, mainly because there are so many front desks and i'm never sure which one i have to check out to! anywayyy, putting aside my slight embarrassment, one of the cookbooks had this awesome recipe that i knew i HAD to make once i got home, and it was a recipe for Gougéres.

Gougéres are meant to be a kind of hors d'oeuvres. it's a little savoury snack that is both crispy on the outside and soft and eggy on the inside. the dough is similar to pate a choux dough, which is used for eclairs and cream puffs :p

in the oven. grow for me, my pretties!!! TEEHHEEEHEE!!!! the recipe called for gruyere cheese and thyme, but i replaced that with mild cheddar cheese and basil, because Stater Bros. doesn't carry gruyere and swiss is wayyy to expensivo.
a couple close-ups of one. the recipe suggested to serve them with caramelized onions, and MY GOD it was delicious. it was like fireworks exploding in my mouth, tickling every one of my tastebuds. *drool* this one i stuffed with some caramelized onions and a couple mini basil leaves.

since my first try with a recipe from this book was so successful, expect to see more of these little bites to come :p

*also, to those of you who don't like onions, lemme just say I DON'T CARE. and as a future chef, i think that is my job. caramelized onions are THE BOMB.

in other news, my schedule for this semester is still not finalized! i'm waiting on a call from the OC Rescue Mission so i know what my hours are going to be, and once this week is over i'll finally know the dealio with my schedule. orientation for the place was last night, and lemme tell ya, that place was SNAZZY. they even had a giant chessboard for the kids to play with (cayyutttee!!!). they also have a set of giant gates in the front, and it kinda reminds me of the 1971 Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory. i'm really looking forward to working there, as this will be my first experience working in a commercial kitchen other than the one at school. even if it's unpaid, i get to help people out, which is always a plus. here's hoping it's gonna be awesome :)

schoolio

2009-09-09T16:41:00.000-07:00

school has been kinda trudging along. not even two whole weeks and i'm already tired as hell, but i just wanted to give you guys a little update on what's goin on with me. so far, here are my classes for this semester:

Food Production Management: cooking food in large quantities and learning how to order ingredients, manage employees, etc.
Pantry: learning cooking methods for things like dressings, eggs & breakfast foods, etc. (yesterday we made mayonnaise!)
Directed Practice in Food Service Management: INTERNSHIP! (i'll talk about this later in the post).
First Aid & CPR
Nutrition
Beginning Drawing

so yeah, Directed Practice is supposed to be the internship class in the culinary program, but what i didn't know is that you have to find your own place to intern at! so since i don't have a job yet, i'm looking into volunteering at this rescue mission/soup kitchen place but i have yet to settle all of that. we have to work either 8hrs/week unpaid or 10hrs/week paid, so i really need to get in contact with them soon about that. as for my actual schedule, i won't get it officially settled until i complete all the crap with this class, so that'll be like, in 2 weeks hahaa. once that is done i'll post my actual school schedule up here :)

:D

2009-09-01T19:58:00.000-07:00

2nd day of class was SO SO SOOOO much better!!!

yayyy elaine! :D

realitycheck scratch that

2009-08-31T18:57:00.000-07:00

why is it that fall semester always seems crappier than spring (for me at least)? i mean, it's not like i'm starting something entirely new. it's the same classrooms, the same teachers, the same 28 mile trek down to costa mesa, and mostly the same people. nothing much has changed, and yet a lot of things feel entirely different, and not in a good way.

i'm fairly certain it's not just the weather.

let's rewind. GOALS FOR THIS SEMESTER:

MAKE FRIENDS. because i can't stand being a wallflower anymore.
GET A FUCKING JOB. because that tat ain't gonna pay for itself!!
ORGANIZE ALL YOUR SHIT. just because my sister's half of the room is messy doesn't give me an excuse to be messy too.
LOSE WEIGHT/tone up! in a healthy way, of course (unlike last semester...).
make going to a school 28 miles away from home WORTH THE TRIP.

EDIT: le sigh...

2009-08-27T12:20:00.000-07:00

it turns out, that fabric i bought from fashion district on sunday was really, REALLY crappy. and i mean, like, unbelievably crappy, to the point where i'm almost certain i can't make anything wearable with it. so much for sewing as much as possible before school starts!! :l

on a happier note, yesterday i went to the good ol' thrift store and stocked up on some awesome sweaters for fall. sigh... i can't wait for signs of fall to show so i can start wearing them! most likely though, that won't be anytime soon: this weekend the temperatures are supposedly surpassing 100 degrees, and even though i start school next week, we all know that for some reason the first few weeks are always the hottest!!

as for food, i think the next few days i should be reviewing some basic terms i've forgotten over the summer (beurre blanc?! noisette?! MONT AU BEURRE?!!) and start cooking in more of the french style that we learned in school rather than cooking in what i call the "lazy asian" style, or basically, just stir frying everything in one pan (which is what i've been doing for most of the summer). today for lunch i made ravioli with sauteed mushrooms, julienne carrots, and pecans in a basil butter sauce. diagnosis? AWESOME (or is it prognosis? i have no idea...). anywho, there will be more deliciousness to come, as saturday is my cousin's birthday party and i shall make a cake. i'll probably post pics of that once it's done :)

yay food!

also, i just wanted to mention that i applied for a job at the Orange Julius/ Dairy Queen stand at Puente Hills mall cuz they said they were hiring. hopefully at least i will get a call from them, as this would be the EIGHTH time i've applied for a job this summer.

le sigh... (another day in the life of)

2009-08-23T23:09:00.000-07:00

today was just filled with... well, crazy confusion/ disappointment/ anger/ holding back tears/ slight contentment/ delicious food and smells/ beating drums/ a bunch of other emotions that i really wasn't expecting to have this morning.

let's start with the crazy confusion (because sometimes i enjoy alliterations). my sister and my cousin and i were planning on going to downtown LA today for fashion district and little tokyo, so i could get some fabric and we can catch the end of nisei week there. i'll admit, i'm a terrible driver. i pretty much need step-by-step directions everywhere i go unless it's some place that at some point in my life i've driven to on an almost daily basis. so maybe me driving to LA wasn't the best idea, since i don't go there TOO often. but anyway, a lot of times, my sister can be VERY moody, to the point where she mocks/gets mad over pretty much everything i do. so when i politely ask for which freeway entrance is the closest to the bank, she literally yells at me. this is where that anger part comes in. i'm not gonna go into this too much, but let's just say that this was what half the drive there was like (a drive that is at least 20 minutes).

when we finally got there, i kinda had to drive around in circles because we wanted to find meter parking instead of the usual $5 garage parking we usually get because we didn't expect to stay a long time there. after spending a good 5 minutes trying to parallel park at a meter, we found out that the meter doesn't work, so we give up and try to find the $5 garage. while trying to find it, a pigeon comes out of nowhere and decides to just sit in the middle of the road. this is where the holding back tears part comes in. i slow down to try and give time for the pigeon to leave the middle of the street, but my sister and cousin insist i drive forward because there are cars behind me. so i continue driving, certain that the bird would at least see the tires and get out of the way. then, THUD THUD. i don't think it saw the tires... T-T

i try to cheer myself up by thinking about all the fabric that i'm gonna buy from my favorite fabric store, Michael Levine Loft. my plan was to stock up on a load of fabric so i can make some more clothes for fall semester. this is where the disappointment part comes in. guess what? it's closed on sundays, even though their business card says OPEN 7 DAYS A WEEK. lamesauce. we end up just walking around all the random fabric stores around fashion district, looking for all the $1/yard places. guess what else? most of these places require you to buy 3 yards per fabric roll. the ones that don't require it are pretty much just selling crap. 3 yards is WAYY too much for me to buy of one single fabric that i only plan on making one thing with, so i try to be sensible with my spending and the whole time there i end up only buying 2 different fabrics, whereas in Michael Levine, i could have bought 2 AND A HALF LBS of fabric with the same amount of money i spent. le sigh...

we head out to little tokyo, which i have to say is where my day started turning up (maybe because i wasn't expecting much?). anywho, this is where the slight contentment part comes in. we go around the JACCC to see some of the japanese exhibits, including ones on painting, dolls, and some awesome bonsai trees (with tiny fruit! it was like someone had taken a piece of my dreams and placed it in a museum...). there were also japanese drum shows on a number of stages around the area, which was also pretty cool. the local stores had food and gift stands around, and we got a hold of some okonomiyaki and some mochi ice cream (:p). we also bought a takoyaki pan, which i expect to be eating a lot of in the near future :)

after the long drive home, we ended up going to the Puente Hills Mall, and i finally bought nice black leggings (because i've pretty much given up on tights... they rip too easily!!).

as for stuff i've been making, last week i knit a cable messenger bag, but i think i'll just post pics of that along with other stuff i make this week before school starts.

also, sorry this post was so long! i just had to tell SOMEONE about my day...

WTF fish (aka, a day in the life of elaine)

2009-08-12T19:39:00.000-07:00

for lunch today, my mom cooked fish soup, and half-way through eating i at a fish bone. this is where my day starts to go downhill... the majority of the day i actually spent trying to remove the bone that was lodged in my throat. after about an hour or so of struggling to do this (apparently i have a really STRONG gag reflex) i eventually gave up because i had to go out and run some errands (damn groceries!).

when i got back home i decided that i should give it a go one more time, mostly because it was starting to hurt A LOT and it was really really stuck in there. after spending the LONGEST time in the restroom just looking down my throat in the mirror and trying to reach it, i finally get to it with a pair of tweezers, with which i had to actually YANK the bone out.

once i was done with that, i was able to continue my day with just a slight sore throat, but i had to suck it up anyway cuz i had to cook dinner. today wasn't a total loss though; i did get to buy a nice pair of jean shorts while i was out :)

the moral of the story: i have to watch out with whatever i eat, because this is the SECOND time this has happened with fish (hence the title of this entry).

summer breeze, makes me feel fine...

2009-08-11T00:42:00.000-07:00

the past few weeks have been kind of slow, but it seems so fast when i realize that school starts in a couple of weeks :l also, my birthday is this weekend! 19! woot...? i've decided that i'm not gonna have a party/get-together thing this time around; the little fambam and i are just gonna eat lunch somewhere and i guess i'll bake something haha :)

as for me making stuff, recently i've been going to a lot of thrift stores around the area and found some pretty neato things like bags, tops, and shoes (mmmm...), but so far i've only made 1 thing out of that stuff. a few days ago i made an awesome cropped navy vest out of a dress i bought at a thrift store in La Mirada, but sorry, no actual pics this time :/ for a visual though (and to make the blog look more interesting), i'll give you somewhat of a mental picture of what it looks like:

it looks like kind of a cross between these 2 vests

so if you could just use a little imagination, you can probably picture what it looks like :D

also, i've been trying to find some nice (and cheap) shoes on ebay, so hopefully my sister will win those bids for meee... a couple weeks ago i got a pair of vintage Doc Martens which i have been drooling over for a while now, especially since it wasn't $180! woot! can't wait for fall to come just so i have a reason to wear them (boots just seem to be a no-no in this hot weather).

resuming challenge!!! haha

2009-07-30T15:37:00.000-07:00

woot! so the sunburn is pretty much gone, and now it's safe to take pics haha. i'm just gonna gather all the stuff i didn't update on into one big post. this is in chronological order, of MOST of the stuff i made, because i actually made other stuff but those were... uhhh.... well, i don't wanna call them "failures," but that's pretty much what they were. again, excuse the crappy pics :/

baby pink maxi dress with gold straps. i don't know wtf i was thinking when i made this, since obvviously i have NOWHERE to wear it to. i just wanted something pretty!!! and it really is pretty in person... also, sorry for visible bra straps...

baby pink jersey tank with rosettes. this one was kinda tricky cuz the entire top was made from the scraps of fabric that were left over from the pink maxi dress. but i actually did it! woot!! also, it's kinda hard to see but there's a drawstring at the waist, and that's why there's the tie.

close-up of the rosettes. i was surprised at how nice they came out. this top is really comfy :)

floral mini dress made from a HUGE mumu-like dress that i found at the thrift store. in retrospect, i suppose i should wear something underneath like tights cuz it's really short.

here's a pic of it without the flash, so you can see that it's a really flowy dress. and the print is soo pretty!! i was kinda going for a vintage-y feel :)

yellow twist vest. you can't really tell from the picture, but at the bottom of the vest there's supposed to be kinda a twisty thing going on haha. this one didn't come out as good as i hoped it would but i still think it's worthy of posting! i didn't really come up with this one either... i saw a tutorial online on how to make one, and it looked really cute, so i thought, why not. ugh. whatever!

as for this week, i still haven't come up with anything!! i've been doing a lot of little things here and there, but not really "making" anything. and it's already thursday!! need to think of something quick.

lately, i've been trying to keep myself busy by doing the most random shit around the house. for example, today i tried polishing my leather high-heels with a banana peel, cuz i read online that it's supposed to be good for leather, and it actually worked! haha i was pretty surprised by the outcome... the only problem i guess with this is the shoes smelled kinda like banana afterward? but as long as they look nice haha. yesterday i took the time to rearrange my makeup brushes in a more organized way. so what does this all mean? I AM FREAKING BORED AT HOME. to the point where i feel it is necessary to do all this random shit. sighh... school starts at the end of august, and i'm really excited about it, but at the same time i'm kinda loathing it :/

we'll see what happens :)

interruption

2009-07-14T20:04:00.000-07:00

i realize that i missed last week's entry... but i promise i did have something to post!!! i made a dress, but i never got around to taking pics of it, and since i have a INTENSE sunburn right now, i don't think it would be a good idea to take pics of my red and burn-y skin... just so you know how painful it is, it hurts just putting on a shirt (i got burnt on my back, chest, and upper legs).

i'm gonna put a hold on posting up pics of the clothes i make for a week or so, just until the flaming red reduces into a crispy brown... i'll still be making clothes because i know for sure i won't be leaving the house too much while i'm like this, but i'll probably just gather them all into one post later on.

on a lighter note, i actually didn't burn my arms this time!! i have to say yay, because every time i've had sunburn before, the only part i ever really burnt was my arms and shoulders, which always led to a horrific farmer's tan. also, i'm gonna look on the brighter side and just tell myself that burnt legs = tan legs later on. yayyy :)

challenge post #2

2009-07-04T23:06:00.001-07:00

i'm finally getting around to posting my entry for this week, one hour before the week is over! whew!

this week i did a painting, as i finally got some paints to work with! yay!! pretty much all i got was primary colors, so i guess from now on i'll be mixing/blending all my colors myself... anywhoo! on to the painting!!

this one is entitled "Lost." if you look at the following pictures, i think it's pretty obvious why. it's a pretty small painting in person, as i'm probably not skilled enough to do something on a large scale...

view of the entire painting...

close-up of the little star. look at his expression.

i used acrylic on cardboard, cuz canvas is so overrated :) i wanted to do something a little cutesy, but with a little meaning to it. sometimes i think we all feel like that little star...

anyway, this week has been pretty eventful, at least in comparison to some of my more lazier summer days. thursday i went with elaine, jackie, and sarah to disneyland, cuz apparently jackie works there now!!! it was fun, and we ended up spending the entire day there, until midnight. friday i went with a couple cousins to the beach, which was WAY too packed, i'm guessing cuz it's 4th of july weekend. soo packed in fact, that people around us were actually arguing over their claim on the bonfire pits... today is the 4th of july, so the fam bam and i trekked over to suzanne park to watch the fireworks show, which was kinda nice. i wish the fireworks were a little closer though... ohh well. yesterday morning i sent in my application to sally beauty supply, the location near the michaels on colima. here's hoping i get the job! getting rejected from 7 different places would be kind of a downer. other than that, there's not much going on in my life...

happy 4th of july you guys! have a good one :D

challenge post #1

2009-06-25T15:46:00.000-07:00

but before i get to that, what is UP with all the celebrities dying?!! sorry. i'm watching the news right now and they said michael jackson died today. but not too long before that, farrah fawcett died. and not too long before THAT, ed mcmahon died. hopefully this won't be a continuing trend...

ANYWAY, back to the challenge. yay for keeping up! yesterday i made a hot pink tank top with knit details. enjoy!
excuse the obvious bra straps. i was too lazy to change to a strapless. also, excuse the unflattering pictures... bad lighting+sis taking pics= awkward looking pics
backsies! you can't really tell, but there's supposed to be a braid at the top of the straps and the bottom part is just supposed to be kinda dangling there...

on the bed. the straps look like a hot mess...

knit detail at middle of tank. i cut up strips of the cloth and knit them together. i needed really thick knitting needles to knit it, so i used two of those thick highlighter markers as needles. yay for improvising!
this is the dress that i mentioned two posts ago that was meant for clubbing... i promise it looks better in person!!!
another angle
pleating detail :)
on the bed again.

two posts ago i also mentioned a painting, but all of that is being put on hiatus right now because my sister still has to find her paints... right now all she can find is white, which doesn't help too much all on its own.

anywho, more to come soon!! two days ago i went to fashion district with the sis and the cousin and i didn't get too much fabric, but i did get some... hopefully i'll get some use out of them :]

ALSO, another random blurb. i HATE registering for classes! today i registered for classes online, and the ONE class that i really wanted to get into i couldn't!! again!!! i registered for 5 classes so far, and it's STILL only 12 units!!!! why are they so stingy with the units?!!? i'm still gonna try and waitlist for that class that i didn't get into, that way it fills up most of my week. hopefully it'll all work out :/

official grades

2009-06-24T20:58:00.000-07:00

for spring semester:

Culinary Principles 2: A
Principles of Baking 1: A
Ornamental Horticulture: B
Freshman Composition: B
Contemporary Ethnic America: A

3.6 GPA for spring! yay :)

summer challenge!!!

2009-06-19T23:38:00.000-07:00

seeing as how i'm only a couple weeks into summer vacation and i'm ALREADY bored, i've come up with a little "summer challenge" for myself that i will try to keep you guys posted on in this blogger. so here goes...

the challenge is to make as many things as possible, but complete at least ONE thing every week. by "make," i mean sewing clothing, making accessories, painting a picture, baking something, etc. you get the idea.

rules:

finish at least 1 thing every week
a "finished" item needs to be something i'm satisfied with, i.e. it can't be some useless piece of shit that i whip up in an hour and pass off as something i "like"
each item requires at least 1/2 hour of planning (which won't be too difficult because i usually take a long time just thinking about what to make...)
each item has to LOOK like i tried. people need to be able to tell that i put some kind of effort into it (depth of thought would be nice!)
each item must display SOME kind of originality (for example, if i sew a dress, i shouldn't be able to find an exact copy of it in some store or online or something...)
post each completed item on blogger!!!

goal: other than to just keep me busy, the goal of this challenge is to expand my creative abilities and to use up whatever materials i have, in a "creative" way. i want to show some kind of productivity for this summer instead of just staying at home being a lazy couch potato. by doing this, maybe i'll even come up with a tattoo design i like cuz at the moment i keep changing my mind...

anyWHAYYYS as i'm typing this i'm kinda working on a piece that i started an hour or so ago, so hopefully i'll have that finished and posted soon (yay for painting!!!). also, some time next week i'm heading off to fashion district, so hopefully i'll get some good cloth there and whip up some clothing and whatnot cuz my stash right now is looking pretty lame. :p

also, just to keep you guys posted, so far this summer i've made 1 top (that i'm kinda not so satisfied with) and 1 dress that i'd say looks pretty cool, although i have yet to wear it out in public (as it was intended for clubbing, but i have yet to do that as well haha). someday i'll find a semi-formal event to wear it to, then BAAM. i'll wear it. hahahaha :)

ps, another semi-challenge that i'm working on is to just not re-gain any the weight that i lost during the school year, cuz that would just suck. suck many tiny monkey balls. pshh. those monkeys would LOVE that. gross.

originally,

2009-06-02T22:01:00.000-07:00

i was planning on writing an entry about how things were changing since i have already completed my first year of college. obviously it has been a couple days since my last class, and over these past couple of days i have been trying to think of something at least somewhat intelligent to write about all this, but nothing really comes to mind. now i find that it would just be ridiculous to think of this as some sort of milestone because here's the thing: it's just the beginning. i have a long, LONG way to go, and time is going by way too fast.

ps. i'll be trying to be really productive on the sewing machine this summer. so far: 1 item of clothing completed (minidress/tunic), 1 item planned/in the works (cardigan).

my bday gift to elaine (a picture shortstory)

2009-05-17T21:02:00.001-07:00

trying to find some of my more "artsy" roots nowadays... :O

watercolor painting i made for elaine... it's a little hard to see some of the finer details (as if there were many haha)
another angle
cute mini pastry-tart thing i made last night :9
aerial view of the star-flower thing... mmmm....
ta-da!!!

Happy Birthday, Elaine!! have a good one! :)

CAYUUUUUUTTEEEE!!!!

2009-04-30T23:11:00.000-07:00

totally random entry, but today when i was walking around campus i saw a duck with a bunch of little baby ducklings following it around!!! SOOO CUUUUTEEE!!! hahhaa i tried taking a picture of it with my cellphone but it came out kinda bad cuz they were in the shadow... ohh wells :]

haircut

2009-04-27T19:38:00.001-07:00

i can't even remember the last time i got a haircut. safe to say, today i got my first haircut in over a year, and it definitely was one of my more memorable experiences in a salon. let me just elaborate on this:

i sit down in the chair and take down my hair, and the asian woman looks at me, hands me an afro pick, and in a thick accent says to me, "help me comb it." umm... "it?!" i know, i have a lot of hair, and it doesn't help that it's exuberantly long and curly, but my feelings are at stake here!! i agree to help, just because i want to get this over with. the woman tells me i should go to a korean place to get my hair straightened: "i don know what dey do but dey good!!" (haha sorry for sounding racist there...) throughout my stay there, the woman calls me "ate," and i'm guessing she's had a lot of filipino women as customers.

when the combing and detangling is finished, she asks me to stand from the chair. at this point i'm a little confused, but decide to go with it. it turns out that since my hair is so long, it's easier for her to cut off the six inches while i'm standing. for about 15 minutes i'm just standing there as she trims the longest parts of my hair (goodbye, split ends!!).

when i sit back down, she begins to layer the rest of my hair, and at some point i look like cousin itt from The Addams Family, but with curly hair:

yeahhhhh... anyway, as i'm sitting there, all i can think is "i'm definitely blogging about this later." while she's thinning out my hair, i stare blankly at the tufts of dry frizzy hair falling onto the ground, like if an airplane were dropping batches of airy cotton candy from the sky (if that EVER happened, i would SO be outside catching it haha).

when it's all over, i look at myself in the mirror, and kind of miss my old, long, hippie-ish hair. but then i look at the ground, and see that it's all there, just waiting to be swept up. ohh well. haircut= no split ends= nice, fresh start :)

103.

2009-04-20T15:47:00.001-07:00

when i was driving home from school today, the temperature on my car said it was 103 degrees. 'nuff said.

FAIL

2009-04-15T23:59:00.000-07:00

ohh man. i just checked my grades on blackboard. i got a 58/100 on my written baking midterm. i knew all the good grades i've been getting would have to end somewhere...

i need to remind myself that THIS (baking) is what i'm planning on doing with my future. *SLAP*

cruisin'

2009-04-12T13:29:00.000-07:00

this past week went by pretty quickly, and i was really surprised because i had two midterms. good news: only one midterm left! yay!! not-so-good news: one essay and one project due this week, both of which i haven't really started...

today is easter sunday, and it's still pretty hard for me to believe that it's already april. only a few more weeks and school will be over!!! (this is me trying to be optimistic haha). even though i've been complaining about how shitty some things have been this past semester, i guess i'm just glad that it's going by somewhat quickly, and guess what else, i'm not doing too bad with my grades either, which is always a plus.

this weekend was pretty chill. saturday i went to fashion district with my sis and my cousin so i could buy some cheap-o fabric from Michael Levine Loft, my new fave place for fabric :D, and to get some awesome blossom extra awesome tacos from Grand Central Market, my fave place for super fatty authentic mexican tacos :9, which always seems to be our routine when we go to LA. after that we went home and i taught (kinda) my cousin how to sew a simple skirt, which turned out pretty nice, despite a few odd stitches here and there. later in the night we went to the easter vigil at church, and i had no idea that it was 3 HOURS LONG. good lord. i thought it would just be a regular mass :/

today we had a LOT of food for our little easter brunch, and my bro and his gf and my uncle and later my cousin joined us. i tried to fry little doughnuts to add to the feast, but for some reason after they were cooked some of them turned out to be hollow...? the science of it all mystifies me... they were still good though, and they were all gone before the end of the day :)

i'm hoping the following weeks will be just as breezy as this past one was. is it really too much to ask for?

dentista

2009-04-06T20:20:00.000-07:00

today i finally went back to school, which wasn't too bad. i only had one class, and it was pretty chill. even though i was incredibly tired today (i had 20 minutes before class so i basically knocked out in my car in the parking lot), i suppose it could've been worse. also, my legs are WAY more sore than they were yesterday because of the hiking. walking across campus to get to the horticulture gardens was quite painful :/

after school i went to the dentist for a checkup, but i went to a different dentist than i usually do. one question: are dentists allowed to have acrylic nails?! i mean, i know they wear latex gloves, but i swear, i could feel her nails clawing at my gums :( my teeth feel weirdd...

yesterday my grandma moved out and is moving in with my aunt and cousin in norcal for six months, which i'm pretty sad about because now i don't have anyone to cook for me at home besides my mom, but she's always busy...

i think i'm gonna end this entry here because they're showing Chicago on amc right now and i'm too distracted hahah. so much for studying for midterms :D

today and yesterday

2009-04-04T21:47:00.000-07:00

quickie update on what happened today and yesterday (friday and saturday):

yesterday elaine called me and woke me up around 11 (haha) to ask me if i wanted to go out with her, ezra, patrick, and dixon. i rushed outta bed and outta the house eventually when they picked me up and we went to puente hills mall but that was pretty quick. after that we were driving around the parking lot to find jonathan's (i think that's his name?) car, and that took a while haha. then we drove to el monte to pick up dixie's car, ezra left, then dixon took me and elaine to my home. he got a dvd player installed in his car, so on the way home we watched Superbad :)

once we got to my home i took elaine to the village where we met up with jackie and sarah. jackie left after 15 mins cuz she had a date (HAAAYYY). actually, she didn't call it a date, but it was her and a guy together and she said he was gonna teach her how to play pool and they were gonna eat dinner after. sounds like a date to me :)

ezra came over and he took elaine home. the rest of the day i hung out with sarah, i got some food at rubio's and we went around tjmaxx, where i found escada lotion for $8!!! EEEKK!! super happy about that! anyway, tangent! we had a lot of fun going around and criticizing the clothes we saw and playing around with the toys, and i totally didn't care if anyone saw us acting stupid, as usual :)

that was pretty much alla friday.

as for today, i went out with the cousins to crystal cove in irvine where we went hiking! IM TIRED! YAY! we hiked for like 2.5 hours up and down crazy hills. i was gasping for air and sneezing and shit cuz nature makes me sneezy. i'm fairly certain i have a bad tan now. my cousin took off her glasses and she had this MAD glasses tan. i was totally scared for my face so i took off my glasses for the rest of the hike. i didn't notice anything yet, but hopefully there's nothing. after we hiked we had a victory picnic, which was awesome cuz i felt all accomplished. and sore! yay! after that whole ordeal we went to my house and pigged out on pizza, watched nacho libre, and basically lounged around.

tomorrow it is off to the cousin's party to pig out some more! :)

sigh. i wish spring break wasn't over :(

rockin' the seam ripper

2009-03-30T18:31:00.000-07:00

today is the first day of spring break, and i'd have to say it was pretty productive :)i got a little cleaning done and i almost finished making two things: a mini purse and a totally HAWTSOME scarf, both of which i am dying to wear outside of the house. i just need to make a few more adjustments and once i'm done with that it'll be totally bitchin'. i'm also planning on making another purse over the break, but this one'll be a lot bigger. perhaps i shall post pics later ;)

once again, sewing proves to be totally theraputic.

other plans for spring break include visiting lauuuura with reinalyn on thursday and going to litto tokyo on friday with the cousins. i also need to find some way to hang out with elaine some time this week because i haven't seen her in FOREVER and she can't go out on thursday :( my aunt asked me if i wanted to work for her for a day doing a clerical job at her office, which i'm a little hesitant about but i neeedd moneyy... at least i won't be picking up doggie doo, right? anywho i'm not even sure that whole "work" thing is gonna happen. we'll see.

now i'm off to listen to little children scream and to eat dinner. sigh.

grateful

2009-03-27T23:55:00.000-07:00

this morning was, without a doubt, depressing. after a while of feeling down in the dumps and pretty shitty about myself, i wasn't exactly sure how to deal with all of this. which brings me to my point. i'm so grateful to have such great friends. they always pull through for me when i need them. chatting until 1 am, texting right when i start to feel lonely, an impromptu meeting at cue, having a talk on the driveway in the dark. seriously, i don't care if this sounds super corny or cheesy, some of you guys may not know how much this means to me. and i really am grateful.

i love you guys. and that's all that needs to be said about that. peace!

spring, spring!

2009-03-23T17:48:00.000-07:00

i need to start knitting again! the sweater i was trying to knit over the summer is still sitting on my desk, half-way done. this is yet another example of my poor procrastination kicking in. i also need to start sewing again. the half-way done purse i was sewing is also sitting on my desk... i need to start finding time to do all this stuff. luckily, spring break is coming up soon (next week! woot!) so hopefully i'll get a lot of shit done that week. i've been browsing the internet a lot to try and find some inspiration for things to sew or make, and now at least i can find some uses for some of the fabric i bought at LA fashion district. new ideas are a-poppin' and i can't go a-stoppin'!

the lavender bush and strawberry plant in my horticulture garden are blooming, and i can't help but be reminded of spring. fresh culinary ideas are coming to mind as well, mainly because i need to figure out what to do with all the produce from our garden once harvesting day comes around. it's so nice to drive to school nowadays because i can finally drive by the fresh, green hills, some with little hints of flowers, rather than having to drive by the winded, weathered-down, and burnt hills that come around during late summer and fall. i guess that's what they mean by spring renewal. with so much negativity clogging our atmosphere, it's no wonder something as simple as a blooming flower can be a symbol for hope.

in other news, ronald (my cousin) is officially moving out of our house. i actually haven't seen him for the past few weeks, but he still leaves his luggage and stuff here, and yesterday he finally came to pick them all up. my grandma is going to be staying here for a few weeks before she goes to norcal to stay with my aunt, which is pretty cool, as long as she doesn't bring my other aunt's dogs here. i just hope i don't gain any weight while my grandma stays over... home-cooked food is always daunting...

my grandma suggested that i stay over at one of my aunt's house over spring break to watch the dogs so i can get some money. ummm.... i NEED money, but i don't know if i'm willing to risk my break for it. after weeks and weeks of coming home from school dead-tired, i think i deserve at least one weeks' break. plus, a week with my aunt?! and her boyfriend?!! at HIS house?!!! let the awkwardness ensue...

today i took my first midterm of the semester. none of my other classes have midterms until after the break, but i'm totally glad i got it over with today. it means one less test, and it also means i don't have to come in wednesday morning, meaning more sleep!! yay!!! more sleep=happy elaine :)

i just noticed that the paragraphs in this entry are getting progressively smaller... random haha

have a nice day! :D

the deal

2009-03-14T21:14:00.000-07:00

so here's a little update on my cellphone, because until today i was totally confused, and i'm sure you guys were too!!

i can keep my phone, but calls are for emergencies only... which, unfortunately means no hour-long phone calls. but! i do still have unlimited texts! so yeah! basically instead of just eliminating my cellphone privileges all together, we're sharing a family plan with my aunt, so we're paying less...? i'm not entirely sure how all of this works out, but at least i still have my phone, which i am entirely grateful for :D

today i drove 30 miles to get to school

2009-03-13T16:05:00.001-07:00

only to find out once i got there that my class was canceled. seriously, this needs to stop. this is the second time this week that this has happened. sigh.

i just wanted to say that because i'm very disappointed. this week school has been very, very disappointing. :/

random, tired thoughts.

2009-03-10T23:33:00.000-07:00

you don't have to read this if you don't want to. i honestly just felt like typing. so if you have the time, here are some random, tired thoughts.

I cant help but feel left behind sometimes. Left alone. Left behind. It’s almost the same thing, to me at least. I’m trying to think of a good example of this, and there are actually so many instances of this running through my head right now. Especially today. Right now. My head hurts. I think to myself, that I need more time to mull it over. But my brain literally hurts. Not enough sleep. Not enough water. I’m suddenly thirsty. Water suddenly tastes good. We cooked veal in class today. I’ve never had it before, but I’m so glad that this was the first time I’ve had it. Soo good. It tasted like it was good for the soul too. Why does everything “good” have to have a consequence?! Veal is “tortured baby cow,” as South Park so eloquently put it. Tuesdays are basically all-meat classes. The vegetarian girl wasn’t in class today. I no longer see the vegan guy as well. My stomach is growling. I need to stop starving myself during the day. That’s probably another reason my head hurts. I’m downing another bottle of water. There are at least three empty bottles of water on my car floor right now. I’m sitting at home and drinking another bottle, and I begin to wonder how much trash I’ve produced because I was too lazy to walk into the kitchen and get a glass of water. I stopped typing for a while because my rabbit was beckoning for attention. I suddenly miss laura. There’s still 50 minutes left until midnight, but this is the most tired I’ve felt in a really long time. It’s now 11:11 pm. I wish for a few things, but now I’m sad at the realization that what I wish for is something that I don’t think I can get on my own. As if the only way it can come true is through some sort of miracle. It’s so close I can feel it, but taking chances puts me at risk, and I’ve been feeling a lot like a coward lately. My rabbit sits at my feet and asks for attention again. He stomps his foot and stares at me. I spend about an hour every night watching him hop and run around the garage. I wish I was this consistent with my sleeping. I have to wake up at 6:30 tomorrow morning. I think it’s time for sleep.

sudden realization

2009-03-04T22:37:00.000-08:00

today i realized it was only week 5 in the semester. WEEK 5 OUT OF 16. i am wayy to tired for my own good. sometimes i wish i had a job, but then i remember how tired i am just after class. every week: english, contemporary ethnic america, culinary principles 2 lecture, culinary principles 2 lab, english, horticultural science, contemporary ethnic america, principles of baking 1 lab, principles of baking 1 lecture, in that order.

this morning was a big ball of nothing. my first class is usually scheduled to begin at 9:35, so after dealing with all the morning traffic and whatnot, i came to class, and lo and behold, class is cancelled. my next class didn't start until 1pm. i wish i didn't have to wake up at 6:30 for that class :(

after a long, but calming, day at the gardens, i finally got home around 6:45. now that i think of it, nevermind that "big ball of nothing" comment. it turns out it's way more calming at school than it is at home. i spent the morning getting some homework done and flipping through fashion magazines in the library, and the afternoon was spent planting more veggies in the garden. sigh. i had to come home to screaming little boys running around the house, and now that i've mulled it over i think it's worth driving over there sometimes, just because it's so much more quiet. i think the only thing i don't really appreciate this semester is having to pay for gas so often and having to dig up worms for hort (ewww).

also, the lack of eating. you would think a culinary arts major would at least try to make time to eat, but today i didn't eat anything until i got home around 7, and most of my week is basically like that.

now to prepare for baking class tomorrow. this tends to be one of the classes that i enjoy coming to school for :)

principals of baking 1: my new favorite class

2009-02-26T20:38:00.000-08:00

and here are my reasons why (in no particular order):

1. every day i have the lab i feel like a kid in a candy store :) by the end of the class it is always a free-for-all grab for whatever we baked, and i always end up taking home a big bag of something. today it was biscuits and scones! :p

2. i like baking, obviously...

3. keeping myself busy in classes like this help me forget about the stupid annoying things that happened earlier in the day, and believe me, there was plenty to forget about.

4. even though the lab always ends around rush hour, being able to take home stuff totally compensates for it. example: today it took me an hour and twenty minutes to get home, but it was totally awesome because i was basically just chillin' in the car, munchin' on some jalepeno cheddar biscuits, and blastin' the music (let's just forget that i wasted a lot of gas, because i do that every day anyway).

5. people just seem to be a lot easier to talk to here!! :)

baking aside, i'm also starting to like my horticulture class. yesterday was gardening day, and we all started our garden plots for the semester. even though right now i'm just praying that the plants will actually grow and then somehow manage to stay alive, it was still pretty cool getting down and diirrty yesterday in the cool weather just digging and whatnot. except for worms. eww. hopefully i'll do a lot better in the actual class though; the first quiz we had i got a 4 out of 10!!! WHYYY?!!! anyway, here's hopin' for a plentiful harvest by the end of the semester :)

i can't

2009-02-22T13:20:00.000-08:00

i can't take subtle hints. it takes me forever just to figure these things out, and when i think i've got it right i still feel a little hesitant about it.

i rarely ever have dreams, but when i do there is always one thing that they have in common; i can never seem to find what i need. i can't find my shoes. i can't find the key. i can't find my room. i can't find the exit on the gate. something is always missing.

i can't find my way.

sometimes in these dreams i actually have the courage to ask for help. it's to no avail, of course. i still can't seem to get a hold of what's going on around me.

sometimes it's true in real life as well.

i hate having so much time available that i force myself to lay down and think about these things. i look at the ceiling, listen to the ticking clock on the wall, watch the light coming in from the window change positions as cars drive by. i can't seem to think about anything else. the laptop i use makes a whirring noise as i type, and the thoughts in my head seem to make a kind of whirring as well, and no amount of deep breathing will help it slow down.

i can't daydream like i used to.

it took me and hour and a half to drive home today

2009-02-18T19:21:00.000-08:00

which actually wasn't the longest it's ever taken me to get home. i made sure to blast the music to keep me awake, a hard feat when i only had a few hours of sleep and hadn't eaten anything today. i found myself daydreaming a lot while i was driving, and for a second when i snapped out of it i thought i missed my exit. i looked around and none of my surroundings seemed familiar, but then i realized i didn't recognize any of it because usually i'd be speeding by all those trees and hills. sigh. another long day.

sometimes it feels like i play a different person every time i go to a new class. today i was the chill, sleepy elaine, just waiting till i could get home. yesterday during the lab i was the busy bee elaine, just trying to finish in time. so many other personalities to keep track of. today someone described me as "old soul." what the hell was that supposed to mean? not to say that it was a bad thing; now that i think about it it sounds pretty cool. but what is it? and which personality is my real one? i thought back to what i was like before all this. all last semester i was the shy quiet elaine; if i didn't have a designated seat i stayed in the corner, i had no friends, but i breezed through everything, albeit alone. this semester i have to work a great deal harder: two kitchen labs, classes that actually require me to think, and actually having to study for quizzes. what i am glad about is that i have some kind of friends this semester, even if a lot of them are just acquaintences, and that i have classes with people who are around my age rather than decades older. then i thought back to what i was like before college; i would joke around with my friends and could laugh as loud as i wanted, knowing i definitely would not be the loudest. i was comfortable with the friends i held on to for years and years. why do different surroundings always bring such an enormous turnaround in my personality? i can feel it rush through my head, and i need a lot more time to think about this.

i can't wait till friday :)

rantalicious: a couple of days ago i scratched my face and now i have a hugeass scar/scab right on top of my nose!!! hopefully it heals soon and goes away... it's kinda painful and it's not really something that i can just cover up with makeup :(

p.s. sorry about the whole identity crisis thing, but it was all i could think of today. hopefully it'll satiate your appetite for a look inside my head...

for a second i wanted to be a vegetarian.

2009-02-11T21:02:00.000-08:00

actually, more like 45 minutes, or an hour, or however long the chef's demonstration took last night. he tore away at the huge section of cow carcass laying on the counter as he so gently described how male cows are castrated so that they can grow even bigger than nature would allow them. this section alone weighed about 90 pounds he said, and i thought about my friends that were close to the same weight. no wonder why i didn't see the vegan guy anywhere around that day. an entire semester on the cutting, fabricating, and manipulation of animals, and who could blame him for being absent?
as the chef described different parts of the cow, all i could think of is how i would achieve vegetarianism (is that a word?). at first people would think i was crazy, but i would convince them that i wasn't with the horrifying facts about meat. i can't even describe how i felt as he literally sawed through bones that were at least 2 inches in diameter. i never understood what a bone duster was for until then. i tried to tell myself this was just like anatomy class in high school, but i realized that even being in front of those cadavers did not make me as uneasy as this hunk of cow did. "this is where the cows head would be if he had one... MOOOO!!!" i held a sad expression on my face as the chef pretended there were some imaginary cow head attached to the carcass.

some time during the semester we will be working with veal. i have never eaten veal before, not because of choice, but just because the opportunity never presented itself to me. during the lecture the chef only said two or three sentences about veal, but just the idea of it and i started to get sad. a baby cow kept in captivity just for the sake of a tender steak?

what the hell was wrong with me? this is my job, or at least, it will be. i began to think about the dilemma i had before i decided to go into this industry. did i really want a job based entirely on gluttony? one of the seven deadly sins? when we began to cook though, it all came together. nothing seemed as bad as it did before, and even though this piece of meat was once a living being, it seems as if it does more as food than it would just grazing in the grass lazily. i continued to make my beef stew, enough to serve 5 or 6 people. now that we were rid of the carcass i could easily convince myself of the greatness that is meat.

no, i would not be vegetarian... meat tastes too good. for now, though, i'll probably still stay away from veal...

i need a butcher's scimitar.

2009-02-08T11:18:00.000-08:00

class FINALLY started again last week. yep, that's right. i need to go out and get more materials, more books, more knives, more everything, and yet i'm having a hard time just leaving the house right now.

i've decided to start up this blog again, mainly because of grac3anat0my (hehehe) but also because i hate that i keep starting these things just to abandon them a few months later. i need to have more commitment, dammit!! okay okay. so there won't be as many entries about food i've made at home, mainly because i'll be actually going to school 5 days a week this semester (i need the credits!), but for sure there will be a lot of entries on my life. like this one!

ranting time!!!

children. right now there are 3 boys living with us, two of them age 8 and one of them age 12. as i'm typing this, they are screaming and playing around in the bathtub. um, excuse me? yeah. i'm not cleaning that up. they'll only stop fooling around in the tub when their parents come along. that's another thing: they are entirely too dependent on their parents. yes, i understand that they are still children, but every time their parents leave them here, all of a sudden they start running around and screaming because they say they're scared of ghosts. that's right. ghosts. joshua, if there were ghosts here, i'm sure they would have just the same chance of haunting you if you were running around as they would if you were just sitting quietly. is it too much to ask for? now, i can understand how it can be a world of difference if the children were my own, but that's just not the case, and it's beside the point. my point is, i am not cleaning that bathtub.

Get a Job (not you, silly, me)

2008-10-11T22:05:00.000-07:00

i realize that it has been over a month since i last updated here, and now that the weather is a lot colder and i'm stuck inside the house, why not update now? school is still trudging along, as usual, same old same old. i find myself going to the library more often to borrow books to read in my spare time, which i seem to have a lot of nowadays.

something different, you ask? well, today i applied for a couple jobs at brea mall. i just feel this is worth mentioning because i've never had a "real" job before (you know, the kind that requires a resume). my first intention for going to the mall today was to go to the supposed "job fair" that the woman at puente hills' See's Candy told me about a week earlier. so i go to the mall, and lo and behold, no job fair. damn you, lying old wench!!! *ahem* anyway, it turns out that this "fair" is just a couple days that See's decided they wanted to take applications, and by the time i got there, they had already hired all the people they needed.

by this time, i figure, screw See's Candy, imma find a job somewhere better. which i did. hahahahaa. Godiva Chocolates. i filled out my application as quickly as humanly possible, stuck in my resume (because i figure that an entire empty page for "previous emplyoyment" looked bad but if i showed off all the stuff i did in school then maybe it'll leverage things out) and introduced myself to the manager, who turns out to be one of the nicest ladies i've ever met (take that, See's!!).

i also applied at Charlotte Russe, which i think is pretty sensible, mainly because i love clothes and i shop there all the time (well, i look around mostly, but you get the point). anywho, both of these places don't start interviewing until november, but i'm still totally looking forward to having a job. extra money for the holidays doesn't hurt either. :)

also, since i like to consider this a "food" blog (teehee) i wanted to talk about this cake. the ginormous cake that Orange Coast College had for their 60th anniversary, which was actually last month. it was 1000 lbs-- i heard someone say 3000, but who knows how they weigh this thing-- and you probably can't grasp the size of it through the crappy cellphone pics, but that was all i had at the time, and i HAD to take a picture of it to show someone.

look at that monster. you should make sure to note the really gigantic bottom layer, which was too big to capture in it's entirety with my cellphone. also, a pic of those random girls to compare for size. haha
a picture of the gigantic slices they were handing out. this was after i took a few bites of course, and then realized i should take a picture of it. you can't really tell the size from this picture, but lemme just tell you-- it was so big that i could only eat half (that's half a slice) and eventually had to get rid of the rest somehow because my stomach was starting to hurt... one of the most shameful moments of my life.

Say Goodbye to Summer...

2008-08-25T20:36:00.000-07:00

and a sighing hello to school. again. sigh. i can honestly say this has been one of the laziest summers i've ever had. it didn't even really feel like summer. it just felt like one REALLY long weekend. oh how the days go by...

since it's august, i have to mention the very many birthdays that come with this month- including mine!! yay!! happy 18th birthday, elaine! what's your gift, you ask? college, of course! you get a school you don't know anything about, filled with thousands of students, all of them complete strangers!!! yippeeee!!! you can probably tell by now that i already started class. sigh. it's time again for new classes, new school, new people. i guess i'm just not up to it all. so far my actual classes have been fine. it's the people; everyone already seems to know each other, but i can't even seem to find out where my next class is! or even just the bathrooms for that matter...

i suppose i just need to wait for things to get in their natural order, when everything doesn't seem so new. hopefully that'll be soon :)

now, back to birthdays. in my family, august has 7 birthdays- 5 of my cousins, one aunt, and my birthday.

we celebrated my birthday with korean bbq. mmm... the reason i post this picture is so that you can see the tremendous amount of food there, and also that shirt i recon-ed out of a really old eddie bauer shirt i found at goodwill. it's from an angle that is just far enough so that you can see the jist of the shirt, but can just barely see my horrendous tanlines... because no one wants to see that.

two of my cousins, who were turning 23 and 20, had a party last saturday, and my gift to them were "make your own birthday cake kits" that i made, including a mug, chocolate cake mix, a whisk, a measuring spoon, chocolate fudge icing, and candles. originally i was going to just sew up a bunch of plushies for them, but then i realized how old they were. i wanted to make something that they can actually use rather than just toss aside after saying how cute it was. so what do you give to a couple of people who describe themselves as lazy? 5 minute chocolate cake! i swear, this is one of the LAZIEST ways to make a cake, but it actually came out kinda good. you just gather all the ingredients, mix it in the mug, and bake it by microwaving. the only problem i have with this cake is that you have to eat it almost immediately after you cook it, otherwise the texture changes a lot... and not in a good way :(

sprinkles cupcakes. i've never been to sprinkles, but i intend to taste what all the hype is about. after recently finding a recipe for their strawberry cupcakes, i knew i had to try it, because we all know that strawberries are the best fruit EVAH. and i have to say, they were delicious. drool. obviously i didn't make the ones in this picture, but when i made the cupcakes they didn't seem to last long enough for me to take a picture. that's a good sign, right? i didn't make it with the same strawberry icing, i just used some homemade whipped cream. after a VERY long search for the perfect buttercream icing, i just decided to give up. i soon realized that i never really liked icing... at parties i would always just eat the cake part, pushing the icing to the side. whipped cream always has a subtle sweetness to it, which i like more than the overly sweet buttercream.

mmm. whipped cream... :9

All American Food

2008-08-04T13:41:00.000-07:00

this week was a lot more eventful than i thought it would be. thursday the new Chick-fil-a was opening here, so of course i had to check it out. Chick-fil-a has this promotion where the first 100 customers in a new location get a year of free chicken sandwich meals. long long story short, they decided to give it to the first 120 customers instead, and guess what number i was? 124. gay gay gay.

the reason why i woke up so early. mmm.

the crazy asses who tented out all night for free sandwiches. i even saw someone unpack a whole couch. ugh.

the rest of the day was good though. i got to embarrass myself continually, got to rant with laura and reinalyn, and just chill and watch tv with them (Saved By the Bell and Yo Gabba Gabba!). i also got to see chris' house for the first time. i still can't believe he has a house cleaner. we did a lot of spontaneous stuff on a day where i just expected to get breakfast and go home. :)

later that night i left home to spend the weekend with my cousins. on friday stacey and i baked an apple pie. god pies are tedious. but i had fun making it, and at least this time around i had some company for help.

there it is, in all it's gloriousness. i'd say it's pretty good for the first time that either of us has made a pie.

later we ate lunch at (where else?) Chick-fil-a and then stacey took me to Trader Joe's for the first time. so many choices! i ended up buying dried hibiscus flowers, mainly because i was just curious. i mean, it's supposed to be like dried fruit but it really looked like a bag of dried sea creatures. who could resist? anyway, it ended up just tasting like a really big dried cranberry, something i think should be eaten in small proportions. let's just say i only ate one of them.

after one of her friends showed up we started making cranberry oatmeal cookies, but alas, they turned out really weird (hence, no pictures). there wasn't as many cookies as promised in the recipe and they ended up tasting like dried cake and just looking like mounds of stuff. several hours after, i realized that we forgot to add the brown sugar. i was so disappointed in myself!!! augh!

saturday was fun as well. after dropping by my cousin's aunt's birthday party, kelley, aimee, and i ventured to the OC Fair, which was riddled with traffic and bad drivers. when we actually got to the fair we wandered around trying to find some good fair food and this is what we came up with:

sigh. frog legs. what a disappointment. for $13 all we got was 2 sets of frog legs on top of fries and a soda. lame. they don't taste that bad; it tasted like a combination between fish and chicken meat, but i don't think it's worth trying again. blech.

classic kielbasa and sauerkraut. the kraut definitely tasted different from what i've tried before. i just want to know, is it supposed to be soft or crunchy?

the ferris wheel! too bad we didn't ride it this time, but i thought it would be nice just to add a pic of it. haha. isn't it pretty?

the very last ride we rode, Dizzy Dragon. it made my arms and my stomach hurt.

i've decided i probably need to stay in a little more this week, as my sunburn from last week finally started peeling. also, i need to put my internal clock back in place. everything always seems a day off for some reason. :P

Weekend En Espanol

2008-07-28T21:11:00.000-07:00

this weekend was pretty interesting. i spent friday night, saturday, and sunday morning camping at lake Hemet with kelley and jesse and his family. and while most of what was said was in spanish, it reminded me a lot of Deutschlager, or german camp (that is, german language camp). the crisp air, the clear lake, and only being able to understand half of what was said. besides that, it was pretty fun, and a hell of a lot better than just staying at home, which was probably what was going to happen. it's really dark there at night, but it helps to see the stars better, and i noticed that the stars actually twinkle there.

i couldn't help but reminisce about Deustschlager while i was there, and then about german. sigh. it turns out that out of the eight of us who took the german 4 AP test, none of us passed (that i know of). where did we go wrong?! i guess there is something wrong going on when we have too much fun. and boy, did we have fun. ~~THIS IS SPARTA!!~~ in the end i suppose i don't care about that score as much as i should. some of the most fun i've ever had in high school were in that german class, and that's the most i could ask for. and we all know it's better to have tried and failed than to not try at all. for now though, i'm just worried about the next time i visit frau rovell.

a week ago or so i made these cranberry oatmeal cookies, just so i can finally get rid of our craisins (the crazy raisin!!). also, we had a lot of oatmeal at home, and i think we both know it's not that appetizing on its own. but in a cookie? yes. deeelicious.

the cookies were nice and soft, with a buttery taste and a tartness from the cranberries. mmm. while craisins are completely good on their own, it helps to have a somewhat healthy snack around the house to keep you away from the potato chips. it also helps me realize that there are other desserts out there besides cakes and pies.

so without further ado, the recipe, which i based off of another recipe and made a few modifications to.

Cranberry Oatmeal Cookies
1 c. butter, softened
1 c. firmly packed brown sugar
1/2 c. granulated sugar
2 each eggs
1 tsp. vanilla
1 1/2 c. flour
1 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. cinnamon
1/2 tsp. salt
3 c. oatmeal
2 c. dried cranberries (craisins!)

directions:
preheat oven to 350 degrees f.

in a large bowl, cream butter and sugar together. beat in eggs and vanilla.

in another bowl, combine flour, baking soda, cinnamon, and salt. add to butter mixture and mix together until completely combined.

fold in oats and dried cranberries to mixture until distributed throughout the dough.

drop dough in rounded tablespoons onto greased cookie sheet and bake in the oven for 12-15 minutes. makes 48 cookies. :)

you can add nuts to the cookie dough if you like, just minimize the amount of cranberries if you do. i've also seen recipes online that top the cookies with melted white chocolate, for more of a christmas-y taste.

Pictures Can Be Deceiving... VERY Deceiving

2008-07-17T23:21:00.000-07:00

i suppose we all make mistakes once in a while, and this just seemed to be "one of those days." i decided i really wanted to make mini vanilla cupcakes, and i really wanted to make use of those strawberries and raspberries i had sitting in the fridge. for the cupcakes i decided to use this recipe, mainly because it was the simplest one i could find and... sigh... let's just call it a disaster. the cupcakes came out of the oven really dry, with basically the texture and taste of a flour-y sugar cookie. i took one of these cupcakes and hit it against the table, and it actually made a kind of "knocking" noise.

not that that wasn't enough of a message telling me to just stop, i thought that maybe i could make up for it with some good icing and a nice presentation. i mean, the cupcakes didn't taste too bad. i desperately tried to save these little babies from the humiliation they would have suffered if i had just left them alone for my family to find when they got home. so, being the "innovative" cook that i told myself i was, i tried to make a strawberry buttercream icing for the top by adding finely chopped strawberry bits to the icing instead of the milk. no. NO NO NO. big mistake. i forgot how much water berries retain, which left my icing very juicy, to the point where it had a syrupy consistency.

but i didn't stop there. oh no. now i had to save both the cupcakes and the icing, because it is forbidden to waste any kind of food in this house, and also because that "icing" took up all the confectioner's sugar i had left, and i refused to throw it out. i decided i would just use the icing as a kind of creme filling to the cupcake. i mean, it's taste was acceptable to pass as some sort of strawberry creme, kind of like those strawberry creme frappuccinos they have at Starbuck's. so i filled each cupcake and topped it with a strawberry slice and a raspberry.

a closer look at the lies these pictures tell.

a shot of the "creme filling."

so what did we learn? well, for one thing, pictures can make almost anything look delicious. i mean, damn. that cupcake there looks really good. another thing (re)learned is that things that you love can still let you down. i love love love strawberries, and i really thought i could save these things with them. it didn't even stand a chance. another lesson: taking the easy way out usually leads to trouble, or in this case, a really dry cupcake. also, substitutions in recipes should only be used if they have been proven to work.

now the only thing i have to worry about is how to get rid of those things without actually having to eat them.

Easy Like Sunday Morning...

2008-07-16T22:35:00.000-07:00

another lazy weekend gone, another lazy week ahead of me. saturday was filled with doctor's appointments, injections, blood tests, and eventually watching Journey to the Center of the Earth in 3D, which i really do not recommend. now, i know i haven't seen any of the previous Journey movies, or have even read the book, but geez. not good at all. also, 3D things tend to give me headaches.

yesterday i went out with laura and reinalyn to eat lunch at Chipotle, and then later wandered around Kohl's, played dress up, and took pictures of it, just like the good 'ol times when we would have minimum days at school and just take the 30 minute walk over there (this was before any of us had cars). we also wandered around Pier 1 Imports for a change, sniffing candles and incense, relaxing in the couches before anyone kicked us off, and wondering what parrot soap is made of. all in all, a good day; i finally got out of the house on my own for something besides grocery shopping.

i also got around to making a shepherd's pie for dinner. i don't know what's up with this picture... looks kinda yellowish. anyway, it was nice to finally make one of these on my own instead of just buying the pre-made frozen ones. also, it tasted really good.

i don't really remember which website the recipe was from, but most of the recipes for shepherd's pie are basically the same; ground meat, cooked on the stove with carrots, peas, onions, garlic, corn, and whatever else vegetable you want, then put in a casserole dish with mashed potatoes on top, then baked in the oven to make the top crispy. gotta love the home cooking. :)

sorry, no dessert today. today i woke up unusually late for some reason, and just decided it would be another day watching tv, using the treadmill, watching more tv, and maybe reading a magazine. hopefully tomorrow i can come up with something to make, which might be a little hard since we don't have milk. also, i'm finding it a little more difficult to just make desserts whenever just because i'm bored, and my sister is complaining of me making the family a little hefty...

"Rustic" Nectarine Galette

2008-07-11T20:34:00.000-07:00

another day stuck at home, another dessert. what? i have to do something to occupy my time, dammit! it wasn't just me at home today, it was my sister and my dad too, so i didn't have a chance to make a huge mess and just clean it up before everyone got home like i usually do. anyway, here it is; a "rustic nectarine galette." i got the recipe from a book i bought a long time ago on sale for $2. pretty good, right? i wasn't quite sure what a galette was before i made this, but if i had to guess, i'd just say it was basically a pie without the pie tin.

hot damn. this thing was delicious. i've never made a pie or galette before, so i'd say this was a success. the crust was nice and flaky, and, even though i usually don't eat nectarines, i definitely would buy another batch of them to make another one of these. you probably can't tell from the pictures, but underneath the layer of nectarines there is a layer of almonds, which added a nice crunch. i also over-estimated the number of nectarines i needed for this, so i decided to turn the leftover nectarines into a marmalade.

it turned into a nice rosy-pink color after i put it on the stove for a few minutes, most-likely because it had a few pieces of the nectarine skin in there-- you can't even really see them now. i was planning on putting it in a nice glass jar, just so it would look a little more presentable, but apparently we don't have any containers in this house that aren't plastic... sigh. at least it tasted good, right?

Summer Loving...

2008-07-10T16:19:00.000-07:00

welcome to my new blog! because this summer has been pretty much just a whole heap of laziness, i've decided to start blogging again. yay!! new blog, new elaine. now that i'm basically stuck in the house (apparently 17 is too young to get a job in any of the places i want to work in), i'll have more time on my hands to make things. i'm definitely going to start posting more of the stuff that i make, since i missed out on posting about some of my biggest creations with my last blog, including things from sewing my first piece of clothing to making my prom dress. i will also be sure to include pictures, because who are we kidding--the pictures will probably be the most appealing part of the entire entry. so without further ado:

yesterday i made green tea pound cake using this recipe, with a few changes. since i didn't have any matcha powder (or any money to buy it for that matter), i decided i would just grind up some tea leaves myself, which was SUPER tedious. a lot of it wasn't really pure powder, but the tea leaf remnants left nice little flecks of dark green in the cake, which i think added to the look. i also didn't get the bright shade of green that the matcha would've brought, but i like the light yellow-green look of this. it makes it look more natural. instead of using the loaf pan used in the video, i just used a regular square pan and cut out the shapes after the cake cooled, then topped it with confectioner's sugar. overall, it tasted pretty good... the tea taste was subtle and it wasn't overly sweet. and i had to add strawberries, of course, cuz they're my favorite :)

hopefully the pictures look nice; i don't have my own camera right now, so i'll be relying a lot on my dad's, because anything taken with a high quality camera looks nice!

and, while i know it's a few weeks late, i wanna mention the biggest cake i have ever made. you can see the picture here. i did NOT NOT NOT take these pictures (obviously), so i have a link for you instead. my cousin asked me to make this cake for her debut, which is basically just a huge 18th birthday party. like wedding-big. it was a carrot cake, as requested by the birthday girl, with cream cheese icing for the filling and buttercream icing on top. mmm. :P