miette & President's Day Weekend

This past weekend was President's Day weekend, a 3 day weekend! I was lucky enough to have my sister and some friends in town so that means going to lots of yummy places!

One of the days I took my sister and her friend to the Ferry Building for an afternoon snack. We stopped by miette to get their Old Fashion Cupcake - a bittersweet chocolate cake with an Italian meringue topping (which was similar to a marshmallow consistency), Rose Gernanium Macaron, and Vanilla Macaron. They had other desserts there in addition to cupcakes and macarons, which include cookies, cakes, tarts, ice cream sandwiches, and other confections. After, we headed over to one of my favorite coffee places, Blue Bottle Coffee, to get lattes and cappucinos to go with our treats.

The cake portion of the Old Fashion Cupcake was nice in the fact that it was not too sweet but it was a little on the dry side for my liking. I really liked the Italian meringue topping though and the candied peanut on top (It was like a Boston Baked Beans candy)! The macarons were nice also but again not the best I ever had. Bouchon still makes the best macarons in my book!

The packaging & decorations were really cute!

Hazelnut Macarons

Also, while at miette, I picked up some cupcakes (Yellow Lemon, Old Fashion, Carrot Cake, Gingerbread (which was recently acclaimed the "Best Cupcake in American" by Food Network), and Carrot Cake for the friends I had visiting. One of my friends is as big of a cupcake/dessert lover as I am. I had gotten a Hazelnut Macaron for their baby girl who finished the whole thing herself when I gave it to her after having dinner with them. She's a dessert lover just like her mommy and I! I'll have to ask them how the other cupcakes are.

Here are the highlights of other places I visited this past weekend:

Cha Cha Cha - shrimp appetizer!
Flour + Water - margarita pizza!
Tartine - this time we had the brioche pudding with nectarines! (b/c they didn't have anymore chocolate croissants or chocolate banana cream tarts)
Mama's - eggs florentine and grapefruit juice!
Bi-Rite - salted caramel and earl grey!
Humphry Slocombe - salted chocolate!

Valentine's Day Potluck Treats

Yesterday was Valentine's day and my office had a little potluck. Here was the menu:

♥ Spinach dip with veggies and crackers
♥ Grapefruit, avaocado, fennel salad
♥ Italian pasta salad
♥ Cucumber and PB & J tea sandwiches <--- I made these :) See below!
♥ BBQ & fried chicken
♥ Chocolate covered strawberries (with toffee bits)
♥ Vanilla Cupcakes w/ blackberry frosting

Like I said above, I made the tea sandwiches. PB & J sandwiches are pretty straightforward. I used crunchy peanut butter and strawberry preserve. Now for the cucumber sandwiches. Traditionally, it is just bread, slices of cucumbers, and butter. The modern moderation uses cream cheese and seasonings instead. Many recipes will include mint or dill along with the cream cheese. I used this recipe as a reference and simply mixed in about 2/3 of the Italian dressing seasoning with 8 oz. of whipped cream cheese. I used white and wheat bread for each sandwich and cut each sandwich out with a heart cookie cutter. Lastly, I decided to decorate the PB & J sandwich plate with colorful heart sprinkles.

They were a hit along with all the other dishes. Everything was just delish! We just have the best potlucks!

Valentine Cards & Envelopes

Since this year I am living away from my family and closest friends, I decided to make them handmade Valentine's Day cards and send them via snail mail.

The card: The little squares of Valentine images were on one regular sized scrapbook page. I cut each square out and pasted it on some origami paper I had around the house. On the back of each Valentine I made, I decorated it with stickers and a personalized message. 

 The envelope: I took standard sized scrapbook paper and trimmed about 2.5 inches off the length and width of the paper to fold it into an envelope. I used this tutorial to make the envelopes but I didn't use a ruler and just free handed everything and it turned out great looking given that the envelopes just were perfectly symmetrical.

I bought all the scrapbook paper and stickers I used from the dollar section at Target! I spent less than $10 to make a dozen Valentines with plenty of materials leftover. What a great deal!

Happy Valentines Day!

I've always enjoyed Valentine's Day ever since I was a little kid. I loved passing out Valentines and candy in grade school. I never thought of it as a romantic day but more of a day to remind you of the people you love and show them some affection. For the last few February 14's I haven't had a traditional Valentine but that doesn't get me down. This year my Valentine is one of my best friends. (I'm so glad she got her Valentine exactly on time!)

Here are some great V-day finds:

Google's doodle skit for today is ADORABLE!



Ryantines (thanks to a friend who sent them to me)

All Ryantines! and Ryantine's Day Mix!

Valentine Memes!

Happy ♥ Day!

Me, a Foodie?!

Yesterday, I stumbled across Yelp's Top 10 Restaurants of 2011. Turns out that I have been to 7 out of the 10 restaurants on the list. Two of the 3 I am missing are in SD, which I don't travel to much, and NY, which I haven't been to since I was 14. So, what does this mean? Does this fact make me a foodie? I certainly do use Yelp to find restaurants (and other places, such as venues and hair salons) however, I don't post reviews or check in or take pictures of food at restaurants (much). Anywho, I'll just continue the way I have been and call me a foodie if you please, however, I have never considered myself one.

On another note, I was surprised that most of the restaurants are in LA and of course it was nice to see an OC restaurant on the list. Represent! Woo!

Holiday Cookies

I wanted to get this post in before it became too far away from the holidays. Each year, I like to bake holiday cookies for my family, neighbors, and friend's families. This year (2011), I gave out cookie plates but decided to move away from the traditional holiday cookies. I made the following: Coconut Sandwich Cookies (left), Lime Meltaways (back), and Chili Chocolate Truffles (right). All of the recipes I used are either from marthastewart.com or inspired from a recipe on there. Though I liked them all, my favorite was surprisingly the Coconut Sandwich Cookies. (I thought it would have been the Lime Meltaways!)

I did make one traditional holiday cookie and it was Gingerbread People Cookies. I made these for my cousins to decorate on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. Again, I got the recipe off marthastewart.com. I love her site and all of her recipes. The kids had lots of fun decorating and eating the cookies!

Reindeer Candy Canes

First of all...apologies for my absence but I'm back and just in time for the holidays!

I wasn't feeling the holiday cheer until this week. It started when I substituted in an after school workshop and watched Elf with the students. It is one of my favorite holiday movies.

"The best way to spread Christmas Cheer, is singing loud for all to hear." - Buddy

That quote motivated me to listen to Christmas music and got me into the holiday spirit. Also, there was an ugly sweater party at my office that I had to miss because I had an offsite meeting, where we went ice skating in Embarcadero, which is equally as festive. I decided to make a little treat for everyone in the office and at my meeting. I got lots of compliments on them on my train ride to work. Here they are...

 

Reindeer Candy Canes

Supplies Need:*

• Peppermint Candy Canes
• Brown Pipe Cleaners
• Small Googly Eyes (~7mm)
• Small Pom Poms (I used glitter ones)
• Thin Green Ribbon (cut into ~6 inch pieces)
• Scissors
• Hot Glue Gun

How to assemble:

1. Plug in your hot glue gun so it can warm up. 
2. Cut the pipe cleaner into about 3 inch pieces. Taking one 3 inch pipe cleaner center it at the top of the candy cane and twist. Taking smaller pieces of pipe cleaner (~3/4 inch) and twist onto the attached pipe cleaner to make it look more like antlers. 
3. Now your glue gun should be warmed up. Using it, glue on the pom pom and eyes.
4. Take the ribbon and tie a bow around the long part of the candy cane. 

*Note: These are the suggest materials that I used. I decided on these materials to stick with Christmas colors but its up to you what you want to use. Below are examples of other colors I did when I ran out of peppermint candy canes and red pom poms.

 

I can't wait to be home for the holidays!

A Twin Celebration

Two of my really good friends are twins. Though they are twins, they are very different, so for their birthday, I took two very different cake recipes and turned them into cupcakes. I got both recipes off the  Martha Stewart website. 

The first is the Sweet and Salty Cake from Baked Bakery in NYC, which was rich and decadent. Usually I'm not a fan of cake batter (I will always try the batter/dough/etc just to make sure it taste right before baking) but I was in love with this batter. It was almost chocolate mousse like. How I made it into a cupcake...I got rid of the caramel layer and just dolloped the ganache frosting ontop.

The second recipe is the Banana Bourbon Layer Cake, which was the best banana cake I've tasted so far (plus I'm a big fan of bourbon). Most banana cake recipes turn out like banana bread more but not this one. It was very cake like, moist and had lots of banana flavor. This recipe originally calls to make it a layer cake but instead I cored the cupcakes and filled it with some topping the cupcake. I topped each cupcake off with a slice of flambe banana. 

Both cupcakes were a hit, and I can't wait to try making them as they were originally meant to be, cakes!

Chocolate Vegan Cupcakes

For my sister's friend's birthday, I decided to make her chocolate vegan cupcakes. I got the recipe from Cupcake Wars winner, Chef Chloe. I've had several vegan cupcakes out there but most of them have been pretty dry. I remember watching the episode Chef Chloe was on and the judges raved about how moist and tasty her cupcakes were. Not mention that she beat everyone and their non-vegan cupcakes.

I didn't make them into strawberry shortcakes. Instead, I made a simple chocolate frosting. They turned out wonderful! They were definitely moist and delicious. Not overly sweet, which was nice.

Creativity

I have a friend who is a DJ and also enjoys making art. He mostly recreates pieces or draws characters (Peanuts are his favorite). One day we had this conversation:

Friend: Do you have a creative outlet?

Me: Not really, well at least like most people think. I make scrapbooks and I bake so I guess I'm more crafty than artistic.

Friend: Oh yeah, you bake but you use other people's recipes so that doesn't really count.

How dare he! Just because bakers are not artist in the traditional sense, doesn't mean they aren't creative. Music producers and DJ's use beats from other songs all the time. When he makes mixtapes, he uses songs from other people and alters it to make it his own. Bakers do the same, they use recipes from others and make changes to make it their own. Also when he makes his art pieces, he is replicating something another artist did already. Does that make him more artistic than me, when I use another baker's recipe?

Don't think so. No, it doesnt!

Budapest: Cakes and Bath Houses

One of the destinations on my backpacking trip in Europe was Budapest. I didn't know what to expect of Eastern Europe and I LOVED it! It's a beautiful city. The buildings are historical and gorgeous. The people are so friendly and helpful!


Budapest is famous for their bathhouses, which have been around since the ancient times. One of our days there we spent the morning sightseeing and exploring the city. Once afternoon hit, one of my friends went off on a caving adventure. (Because of the natural springs, caves have formed under the city) My other friend and I decided to go to a traditional bathhouse instead. On the way to the bathhouse, we stopped by a cute cafe to have a snack and expressos. We got a traditional Hungarian cake, Dobostorte, which had a hard top layer of caramelized sugar over alternating layers of sponge cake and chocolate buttercream filing. We also got the cafe special, which was a chocolate cake that had alternating layers of chocolate sponge cake and chocolate buttercream filling. Both were decadent and delicious!

Dobostorte and The Cafe Special Cake

There are several bathouses in Budapest. One of them turns into a nightclub pool party on summer nights. Since we were there in autumn, we were unable to go to that. The bath house we ended up at was more of a locals place. Since it was a women's day, you could go bare. My friend and I also got 1/2 hour massages for only about $12. It felt amazing especially after hitting the pavement for 3 weeks straight. The next day we went to another bath house with our friend who went caving. It was called Széchenyi, which is the big tourist bath house and it was the most pretty looking one. It was ginormous and all the baths and sauna and steam rooms were coed so bathing suits required. 

The locals bath house

Christmas Baking

Every year, I bake goodies for my family, friends, and neighbors. This year I had some help from my sister and a friend. Here is what we made....

1. Peanut Butter Cup Cookies

2. M&M Christmas Cookies

3. White Chocolate Chip Pumpkin Cookies

4. Tate's Chocolate Chip Cookies

Click on the captions for recipes

Here are my notes and modifications...

1. I follow the recipe exactly. So simple and yummy!

2. I made the following modifications to the original recipe: I mixed in only 1 cup of chocolate chips and pressed Christmas colored M&Ms right when the cookies came out of the oven. 

3. I added 1 cup of Toll House's white chocolate chips instead of making the frosting to go with it. You might want to add 2 cups if you like it more chocolately. (I got the idea to make these from some cookies saw in the bakery at Ralph's Supermarket)

4. My friend had shown me this recipe that she found on Goop (Gwyneth Paltrow's Blog). She came over and helped me bake these. We used 60% cocao chocolate chips from Ghirardelli. 

Baking Jewelry

I LOVE ETSY!!!

You can find all sorts of cool things on Esty. While helping my sister find a Harry Potter necklace, I ran across some really cute baking jewelry. Here's what I found...

Cupcake Pan and Whisk Necklace

Tea/Coffee Cup Necklace

Cupcake Earrings

Pretzel Earrings

There are just some of the neat ones I found. They are all soooo cute!!! The pretzel earrings remind me of the ones I was suppose to get while I was at Oktoberfest in Germany. Having one to many steins prevented me from getting them and it would be just silly to get them here. 

Homemade Chai Tea

I LOVE TEA! One of my favs is Chai Tea.

I gathered all the ingredients, most of which I had on hand already or could find at any neighborhood supermarket. The only one that gave me trouble was cardamom. I eventually found it at Whole Foods Market but it came with only a few seeds and cost about $2.99. Luckily for me, there is an Indian Market nearby where I work. I went there and found a big bag of cardamom for $6.99, which is a much better deal. I used the English Breakfast tea I got from Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf, which is a blend of Darjeeling and Ceylon black tea.

I used this recipe I found online. It turned out nice but I prefer my tea a little more stronger and spicier. The next time I made the tea, I let the spices simmer longer to get more flavor and steeped the tea a little bit longer and it came out much better! The recipe still needs some perfecting but it'll do for now!

Halloween Cupcakes (Organic Pumpkin Ginger Cupcakes)

Sorry this post is way late but here it is....

This year, I decided to get make Pumpkin Ginger Cupcakes. I got the recipe off allrecipes.com. It got 5 out of 5 stars and people could not stop saying wonderful things about this recipe in the reviews. Boy, they were not lying because these cupcakes were amazing! They were moist and perfect with cream cheese frosting.

I would describe them as a hybrid cross of cupcakes and muffins. They were hit during Halloween and Thanksgiving! I'm sorry I can't find the pictures I took of these cupcakes.

My Halloween was too much fun this year. I went up to SF with a couple of girlfriends. Three straight up crazy nights. One of them being the night the Giants won the World Series. The city went nuts, and it was awesome being part of the celebration!

Thanksgiving has traditionally been at my house every year. This year my sister made the pumpkin pies while I made the stuffing. Here is the recipe I used. The whole family came and we ate as usual. Luckily, leggings are in right now. You get to wear stretchy pants and look fashionable at the same time!

I love this time of the year because its the start of the holiday season!

Extraordinary Desserts

This past weekend has been a blast! It was Veteran's Day weekend so lots of people were off since Thursday, including my friend Sandok. We were suppose to go up to SF this weekend to see Mayer Hawthorne in concert and at a meet and greet. Unfortunately, matters beyond our control prevented us from heading up there. Luckily, we were still able to get tickets to the LA show, which was AMAZING!!! I'm officially a Mayer groupie!

We took advantage of our days off by also going shopping and to the San Diego Zoo. I've only gone to the Wild Animal Park. It was fun seeing all the animals. Sandok got lots of great pictures.

Munching Giraffes

Sleepy Koalas (Brings me back to Australia)

Hungry Hyenas (reminded me of Lion King)

Playful Otters (I wanted them to hold hands!)

After the zoo, we needed an afternoon pick me up. I couldn't be in SD and not stop by Extraordinary Desserts! We decided to go to the one on 5th Ave. since it was the closest.

We got a couple of desserts and drinks and sat outside to enjoy them and the view. All in which were wonderful!

Apple Tart

Chocolate Banana Tart

It was quite the eventful weekend. Sadly, its over now and its back to work tomorrow morning. 

Blueberry Sauce

Wow...its been a long time since I blogged last! I just got so busy in August, then I backpacked all over Europe in September and into October, then took some time to recover, and now I'm working full time. Sorry for my absence, but I'm back now and ready to update, so watch out for post coming at you like rapid fire. Here's the first one...

Blueberries = my favorite berries

Why blueberries rock because they are...

• deliciously wonderful
• packed with antioxidants
• a great source of Vitamin C
• a great source of fiber
• a great source of maganese
• smile friendly (their seeds don't get stuck in your teeth)
• have no fat

Blueberries are a great summer fruit. I can easily eat an entire pack in one sitting, they are that addicting. Nature's candy for sure! Blueberries are wonderful all by themselves but they are also great as a sauce. It's quite simple to make... All I did was melted some rock candy sugar, throw in the blueberries and added some corn starch to thicken the sauce and tah dah! I made the sauce for a friend's BBQ. Since I was crunched for time I bought some lemon pound cake and ice cream to serve with the sauce. 

Norcal Getaway

I recently had a long weekend getaway to Norcal. The reason, or rather excuse for us to make our trip, was to visit UC Berkeley. My sister will be applying for colleges this fall and I was applying for Optometry school, so we wanted to check out the school. I used to think I wouldn't like Norcal, but the more I visit, the more I see myself living there, for a while at least. The weather was really nice while we were up there. This was probably the warmest summer I've experienced in Norcal. Anywho, here are the places I encountered during this weekend. First stop, the Gourmet Ghetto in Berkeley...

Cheeseboard

This place is a lunch hot spot in Berkeley. They only make one type of pizza and one type of salad per day and its completely vegetarian. The only option you have is how many slices you want. They always give you a tiny half slice with whatever order you get. They have a variety of bottled drinks and simple sweets also. On the day we went, the pizza had roasted corn, bell peppers, garlic, and cilantro. The salad consisted of organic mixed greens and a sesame dressing (I think). We sat at a table outside and enjoyed our pizza and the beautiful weather.

 Walking back to the car from Cheeseboard, we saw a sign for a cupcakery and decided to go up the steps to the hidden shop called...

Love At First Bite

Their cupcakes and baked goods at had a really simple and homemade look and feel. I love the fact that they make mini cupcakes. We got a dozen of them with various flavors, red velvet, lemon, strawberry, and chocolate. We also go a regular sized chocolate pistachio. These cupcakes were not a top favorite of mine but they were tasty. They aren't as sweet and decadent as other cupcakes out there. They had a very light flavor and sweetness.

After our first two stops, we left the Gourmet Ghetto and headed to UC Berkeley's campus to explore and check out the school. We stopped by the local Urban Outfitters and American Apparel. From there we headed to an ice cream palor in Oakland called...

Fentons

I was most excited to go here, the original Fentons Creamery. I've always heard lots of great things about this place. I also found out that it was in a scene in Up. Sadly, I've never seen Up, but it is definitely on my to-do list. I could not wait to try their handcrafted ice creams and sauces. There were six of us and we decided to be adventurous and get the banana special substituting the regular chocolate for Swiss milk chocolate and pineapple sauce for cold caramel. Those 3 lbs. of ice cream and toppings were amazing!

Now off to San Fran for the next day, where my sister and I spent the day walking around, shopping, and of course, snacking! We started the day off by meeting up some friends in North Beach for brunch at...

Caffe DeLucchi

It was a nice cafe with outdoor seating. Since the weather was so nice, we sat outside. My sister and I shared the eggs Florentine and the granola and yogurt parfait. Our friends had the eggs Benedict and the crab cakes Benedict. All of it was quite delicious. I still prefer Mama's but this place is a close second.

(Sorry I don't have any pictures from this place)

Our last night in Union City, my aunt took just my sister and I out to dinner to catch up with us. We went to a restaurant in Milpitas called...

Banana Leaf

This place was cracking! There were just three of us and the wait was about 40 mintues. I had never had Maylasian food before this, and the best way I can describe it is that is a hybrid cross of Thai and Indian food. Every dish had lots of flavor. It was a good dinner and good time with my aunt.

(Sorry no pictures from here either!)

We spent the last day of our trip in San Jose. We went to the Great Mall, where I saw the funniest store, 5.7.9.! Immediately, when my sister and I saw it, I turned to her and said, "1. 3. 5." The reference is the movie, Mean Girls. I wish I had gone into the store to see if they really only sold sizes 5, 7, and 9. That would be have hilarious! Later that night a friend took me to a speakeasyesque bar called...

singlebarrel (nope, that's not a typo)

This place has a roaring 20's feel to it. After the bouncer checks your idea, you take a stairway downstairs to a dimly lit bar. All the bartenders are dressed in vests and ties. My friend happen to know everyone that worked there. The staff was super friendly and so where the people at the bar. The first drink I got was an English Cosmo. The bartender recommended it. All I know about it is that is had gin and crushed cucumers in it and it was really good and really refreshing. It was a little on the sweet side for me that night. I wasn't in the mood for sweet for some reason. The other drink I got that night was an Old Fashion, and I definitely liked this one. It's probably one of my favorite drinks. It pretty much bourbon with a little bit of sugar and bitters garnished with a lemon peel. A cool thing they did was put a big ball of ice instead of large ice cubes. I forgot the first drink my friend got but I remember it didn't quite match my taste in drinks. I do remember his second drink was a Pisco Sour, which was nice. The raw egg whites in the drink scare me a bit though. It was a fun night, I can't wait for my friend to come to visit, so we can get craft cocktails in Socal!

(Again, sorry no pictures from this place!)


My trip could not have been any better! I got to go to all these yummy places, see my aunt and cousins, meet up with friends, spend time with my sister away from home, get away from the stresses of my everyday life, and clear my mind. I can't wait to make another trip back up to Norcal soon!