Tiramisu

Fun times with the best friend!

A while back, I decided to make tiramisu for Christina's birfday dinner party. I started researching some recipes online, and the more I looked, the more I got confused. All the recipes asked for a variety of things like heavy cream, whipping cream, milk, vanilla extract, butter, flour, and even gelatin. I didn't know what recipe to use because I didn't know what the difference would be if I used a recipe that had milk and flour versus having heavy cream and gelatin.

A trip to Claro's Italian Market quickly resolved any confusion. I love small markets, the people are so nice! I asked the store clerk if she could help me choose a recipe and she ended up taking me to the kitchen so I could talk to Lena, the cook! Lena proceeded to tell me how to make the tiramisu. Turns out the recipe is super simple, compared to the recipes that were googled.


The ingredients:
3 large eggs, yolks & whites separated (I used 2 big ones and 2 small ones)
2 cups espresso (Ann brewed 2 strong cups of coffee instead, espresso is $2 an ounce!)
1 package of ladyfingers (17.5 ounces)
1 tub of mascarpone cheese (16 ounces) (don't use cream cheese or any other substitutes!)
1 cup of sugar
1 tablespoon alkie of choice (marsala wine, rum, kahlua, amaretto, etc)
cocoa powder for dusting

The recipe can also be found on the tub of mascarpone cheese.


First, we beat the egg yolks, sugar, alkie (I used Amaretto), and 2 tsp of coffee for 2-3 minutes. (Recipe says 1 tsp but since we used coffee instead of espresso I doubled it for the heck of it)


Then we added the entire tub of cheese and beat for 3-5 minutes until smooth.


Next, we beat the egg whites with a pinch of sugar until the egg whites formed stiff peaks.


While Ann was beating the egg whites, I started prepping the ladyfingers. Turns out my glass dish was not long enough and so I had to break off the ends to make 'em fit.


Stiff peaks! Then we folded the cheese in and mixed by hand until it became a smooth and creamy custard. (Not pictured)


We dipped each ladyfinger into a bowl of coffee for literally seconds. The cookie gets super soggy if you leave it in too long! As we dipped, we layered the entire bottom with ladyfingers.


Next we spread a layer of the custard!


Ann used her nifty sieving skills and dusted the top with cocoa power. Then we repeated with another layer.


The final result, look at the layers!


Since I had all those ladyfinger ends, I decided to be experimental and do mini tiramisu cupcakes.


I just like this pic. :)


Yay done!

We refrigerated everything overnight. I wonder how it tastes! I won't find out until Saturday evening. Ann and I tried the cupcake ones an hour after being in the fridge but they were still a bit soft & soggy. I just hope it solidifies enough to cut cleanly by serving time.

Depending on how it tastes, next time I'll use espresso maybe. People say that tiramisu is not tiramisu unless you use marscapone cheese and espresso. We'll see.

Granny Ass

Christina and I went to Olympic Spa yesterday. What I thought was going to be a soothing, relaxing and an insert-your-stereotypical-spa-adjective experience turned out to be quite a naked, hilarious, and at times, painful one! Memorables:

1. We wandered into the hot tub/shower room and saw naked women standing in the open showers, sitting in the hot tub, and laying on the massage table. They were EVERYWHERE! Christina and I looked at each other, and we both agreed: "We're not there yet."

2. So we're sitting on a bench in front of the shoe lockers, waiting to be called for our treatments. I'm basically eye level with anything below the waist. This old Korean grandma walks by and I can see naked wrinkly tush! Yikes! I turned to Christina and said, "Hit me. Pinch me. Don't let me laugh!" Haha. Granny ass.

3. The facial had some painful moments...especially when she was going at my face WITH A NEEDLE. That's right, A FUCKING NEEDLE. So all I could say was "Owww. Owwww. OWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW." The lady (who was Korean of course) just laughed and said "It hurts, eh? Heehee." Unbelieveable. Luckily, the pain was temporary in my case. Poor Christina's still hurt after we left!

If you decide to go there, here are some tips:

1. The towels are...not large. We wrapped ourselves in it...and it kept falling off even after we tightly tucked it in! Next time I would just wear the robe. Oh yeah, everything goes off, even undies!
2. Bring your own flip flops to walk around. Luckily I didn't have to use the restroom, but I wouldn't step barefoot there. Same for the shower stalls.
3. No swimsuits allowed. That's right. If you wanted to use the hot tub, be ready to face each other...completely naked...maybe with other strangers too...
4. It's super hot and humid in there. I would not wear heavy smelly lotion before going there. Since I rarely use lotion I didn't have a problem with this, but I am just thinking ahead for others. =)
5. You don't have to bring tip money to the treatment room. The ladies give you an envelope afterwards, and you just slip in the tip and leave it at the front desk.
6. Be careful what you sign up for: http://www.olympicspala.com/rituals.htm
If you pick Head to Toe...that involves needles. And for Christina, some magnetic shock therapy thing that I luckily did not have! (Even though we got the same treatment, when we swapped stories we discovered that some things were done differently)
7. Females only! Understandbly.

I think I will give this place another try...someday. With a different treatment! But maybe I should go to Glen Ivy next...hmm.

Happy xmas/bday Christina! At least we got some good stories out of this experience! :)

'Cause rolodexes are ugly

I collect business cards like kids collect pokemon cards. The oldest card I have is a Ten Ren Tea Station (Chinatown branch) card from 8th grade. For the last few years, I've been meaning to find a functional yet purty rolodex to house said cards but picky 'ole me hadn't found a design I liked.

Gross, huh?

Recently, Christina linked me to this one from Pottery Barn:

It's nice, eh? But not very functional. Plus it was $49 and sold out anyway.

So I decided to be proactive and make my own! Thanks for your ideas Christina!


Materials needed: biz cards, index cards, scissors, pen, sticky tabs, photo corners, silver rings


First, I cut the index cards (4X6) in half. Then I used photo corners to secure the the card to the bottom right side of the index card.
(Akane is an excellent sushi restaurant in Los Altos. I ate for free 'cause Josie's friend used to be a chef there. :P )


Next I hole-punched the opposite corner.
(The Thai desserts at Nana are yummy. Not as yummy as Regina's family's restaurant though!)


Then I stuck on tabs for easy reference. I separated my cards by various categories such as soul food, desserts/bakeries, vietnamese, south american, indonesian, etc.
(I googled La Belle Epoque after I finished this project. I found out that it's closing! Boo. But there's other brunch places in Los Feliz that I'd like to check out anyway, so no biggie.)


The finished product! Very nifty indeed. Now I have to repeat for my shopping/services/people biz cards. Combined, they don't even come close in number to my foodie cards though!

By the way, I dunno why the photos look blurry! My original photos are excellent quality! Then I upload them to flickr, and it seems fine there. But when I upload it to blogspot it comes out funky. Bleh. Anyone wanna help me troubleshoot?

Eclectic is as eclectic goes

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Bakin' with the kiddos

I decided to teach my little cousins how to bake brownie cupcakes today.


silly stirring


yummy batter


cleaning up


parked in front of the oven


she's waiting too


"I learned how to make a cupcake. I thought that it would be really hard. But it was so easy...My favorite part was knowing that we would eat it. My least favorite part was waiting for the cupcakes...The cupcake is delicious. It was chocalaty...Phuong Yi Yi says that milk is good for us. Brian won't drink it though. The end."


"...I hate to wait for the cupckas. And it look delishes. I also learned that when your done cooking it is hot. I learned that the book was a lier. We had to make a second batch. The end."

(I think I need to help him with his spelling next.)
(The recipe was inaccurate. One batch was sposed to yield 24. Instead, we had to make 1.5 batches to just yield 12.)


"...I lerned to make cupcaes. Craken eggs was hard. Putting cocoa was easy. My favorite part was wen I was etan the cupcakes."


finally!

It was a great activity for them. I mostly sat back and let them take charge. Even if it got really messy, I knew that they wouldn't "lern" anything if I did most of the work. The only part that I helped them out with was filling the cups. Fun times!

I know I ought to help them with spelling/grammer but I think it's cute when they spell things wrong. :)

Cambodian & Caribbean fooding

Only in LA can you get Cambodian and Caribbean food all in one day! Well, maybe in NYC too.

For lunch, we went to:
La Lune Restaurant
1438 Atlantic Avenue
Long Beach, CA 90813


Beef skewers

Watercress soup

Lemongrass chicken with onion and bellpepper
Weird eggplant/cucumber, fishy curry, porky curry

Cambodian food is a bit like vietnamese/thai food but much more flavorful! In my book, that is not always a good thing though; the fish dish was super fishy! The lemongrass chicken was super tangy! I didn't mind b/c I've had super flavorful foods before, plus I ate a bunch of white rice to help balance the strong flavors. Anyhoo, I think it is an acquired taste; them cambodians are used to not-bland dishes. Another thing I noticed was a lot of frog legs and pig intestines on the menu. We didn't eat those though! But the watercress soup had some cow tummy lining in it. And no, there were no crickets on the menu. :D I don't doubt that they eat 'em in Cambodia though!

I think overall the food was good, but I don't think I'd eat it that often. I'd recommend everyone to try Cambodian food at least once, and then decide for themselves. Just head over to Long Beach!

For dinner, we went to:
Cha Cha Chicken
1906 Ocean Ave (Cross Street: Pico Boulevard)
Santa Monica, CA 90405


Ropa Nueva: Simmering shredded chicken tossed with garden veggies

Ropa Vieja: Simmering shredded beef served with dirty rice & black beans, plantains and 2 corn tortillas

I guess I have had Caribbean food before b/c I've eaten at Versailles. Isn't Cuba part of the Caribbean? *note* must start on "How to improve my knowledge of US/World geography"

Anyhoo, it was pretty delicious! The chicken was very tender, and the jerk sauce was the perfect mix of hot and tangy. Too bad it was sooooo dark that I couldn't tell what I was eating until I would pop forkfuls into my mouth! I think I had bell peppers, tomatoes, onions, and potatoes mixed with the chicken. The black bean rice was yummy, but my favorite was the plantains. It was the right texture and amount of sweetness. I think it would taste so yummy with vanilla bean ice cream! Too bad it was really cold, but I definitely want to go back when it's warmer. I also wasn't able to finish my plate off, I was so full! You guys know how much I hate wasting food though. :(

Funny food convos from tonight:
"Have you had plantains before?"
"You mean fried bananas?"
"No, plantains."
"Yeah, they are bananas...and fried?"
"No, a plantain is like a banana...but fatter and less sweet. And they fry it."
"Oh. Doh. Yes I have." (I was feeling like such a dork! I thought "plantain" was fancy moniker for "fried banana.")

"So on the menu they had frog! Have you had fish legs before?!"
"Yeaaaah....huh? No? Wait a minute, fish legs?"
"Yeah! Fish le....oh shit I meant frog legs."

Size DOES matter

First off:
I'm glad I can talk about my bras and boobies and not feel like I have to censor myself (if this was xanga, I can't be this candid!).

Secondly:
Thanks to Christina for introducing me to the world of not-wrong-bra-size.

One day Christina started talking about Oprah's "Bra Revolution." She also told me about how getting fitted at Nordstroms was the best. Back during second year, I had gotten fitted at Victoria Secret and apparently I was a 34A. I got suckered into buying this $50 strapless bra that I RARELY wore 'cause it was all lumpy and gross. I continued to wear whatever random bras I had.

Through my mom, I discovered the $2.50 Chinatown bra aka known as the dept store reject. For the past few years, that was the only place I went to for bras. I never really looked at the tag for size, I would just try on fun colors and if it fit/was comfy, I bought it. If you had asked me what my bra size was, I would have guessed 32B, 34A, or 34B. Shrug.

Last month, I was having a horrible day so I wanted to do something girly. How much girlier can you get than getting fitted for a bra?? So I went with Christina to Nordstroms. Turns out I was a 32B. The sales lady brought in a bunch of bras for me to try and immediately I fell in love with the Natori brand. Man, I'm just gonna save up my $$$ and buy Natori bras for everyday of the week!

The funny thing is, I wasn't a part of the 85% of women who wore the wrong bra size. I came home, looked at all my bras, and with the exception of the VS bra, they were all 32B. Haha. Here are some rules I learned from the sales lady:

1. Never wear a bra two days in a row (I don't do this anyway, I need variety!)
2. You should handwash your bras to keep it elastic-y longer (I usually just handwash dry-clean only clothes! I never thought you should do the same with bras).
3. When you first wear a bra, use the closest hooks. Then over time, switch over to the further hooks. (I'm trying to do this now, I feel the difference!)

Christina's blog pretty much lists the same rules that she's learned through ppl/experience over time. I'm glad she's made me more aware! Wearing a better fitting bra in the correct size does make a difference. Price also makes a difference too in terms of quality. As a college student, I wasn't able to splurge on expensive bras, but since I'm a working gal now, there's no excuse. With each paycheck, I will phase out my Chinatown bras and make the switch to the pricey-but-worth-it-bra-world.

Ladies, your turn to get fitted!

Vroom, vroom!

One of my favorite memories from Hawai'i is when Matt taught me how to operate a moped. One day after class we headed out to the UH parking lot. We started off with me sitting behind him so I could get a feel for what it was like to be on a moped. It was fun! I didn't wanna get off. But soon Matt decided that it was my turn! So we switched spots and then I got nervous. But he was a great teacher, and after a few rounds I felt comfy.

But then, I had to go all by myself! I started feeling scared. But man...after I got the hang out of it, there was no stopping me! For the next few days, I went up, down, and all around that parking lot. There were a few close calls with some parked cars but I managed to avoid them. I don't think I even fell once. Well, at one point, I got ballsy and decided to go faster and that almost ended in a date with the asphalt. Matt even said that I was ready to be out on the streets, where there were ppl...and moving cars. Haha. Quite a generous assessment of my skills, I didn't think I was ready!

I want to re-learn again! Who's gonna teach me? But I want to do it in Hawai'i...LA drivers are scary. I know that because I used to be one of them. :) My road rage has simmered down noticeably in the last couple months though!

Happy Birfday, Mama!

I love how I did 3 things on my list tonight without even intending to! See, my list isn't that impossible! :)

So originally for my mother's bday (which isn't until the 3rd) I wanted to do a spring roll party with just me, my parents, grandma, and the parents of my mom's current favorite baby in the family (Toto, who's Gigi's sister). 6 adults & 2 babies, sounds easy, eh? So when I invited my cousin, she said "No, you have to invite my sister's family too!" That meant...2 more adults and 4 kiddies. So when I went over to invite them, my other cousin was hanging out at their house, and I couldn't not invite her and her fam too. Before I knew it...I had to invite everyone in my family b/c they are all siblings. So I went from 6:2 to 17:11. Spring rolls turned to spaghetti. Celebrating on 1/2 got changed to 1/1 to accomodate everyone. Suddenly, I had less than 2 days to pull my shit together...

...And I did it!

1. Learn: How to cook a non Asian ethnic food

Spaghetti is Italian, so there you go! Okay, so I had picked spaghetti b/c I thought, how hard could it be? Just dump everything into the pot and let it simmer for hours. But I completely forgot about the prepping process, grrr.


Button mushrooms were whole, so I had to slice each one.


My cousin is vegetarian so I substituted tofu for meat in hers.

I also diced tomatoes, chopped onions, and sliced smoked sausage, and then I sauteed everything separately to seal in the flavor of each ingredient. Also by sauteing first, I wanted to extract the extra water from the vegetables so that when I put everything into the pot, the veggies wouldn't release water and dilute my sauce.

That process took nearly 2 hours! Finally I was ready to throw everything into two pots: a veggie (sans onions b/c Buddhist vegetarians don't eat onions/garlic) and a meaty one (I was too liberal with the garlic salt, my cousin had to dump in a bunch of sugar, haha).

I didn't really follow a recipe, I just referred to a couple on online ones for ingredients, but in terms of proportions, I guesstimated. So for roughly 30 people, I used 4 cans of tomato paste, one onion, 4-5? tomatoes, 3 packages of smoked sausage, 2 blocks of tofu, and 5 cans of button mushrooms. I added dashes of salt, pepper, and too much garlic salt (whose effects were reversed by sugar later on). :D

The part I hated the most was waiting for the noodles to boil. TOOK FOREVER! I had four pots of water going at the same time. Omigod. Stupid noodles WOULD NOT COOK FASTER. Next time I buy angel hair. >_<. So that was my experience in cooking my own spaghetti sauce from scratch. Thanks to Jenta, Susan D, and Christina for all your help! All in all, I think I spent roughly $30ish on everything! *Note* I will not be cooking any spaghetti for A REALLY LONG TIME.

2. Food: Throw a dinner party

Okay, so this wasn't the type of dinner party that I had imagined...with cute little appetizers, pretty drinks, and mellow music in the background (I still plan to do that btw!). But it was fun even though it got rowdy! I also know what the key is to having less stress when throwing a party- delegate, delegate, delegate! All my cousins asked me what they could do or bring and let me tell you, I was not shy. Andy's mom baked the marble chocolate cake with cream cheese, the twins' mom made almond jello, LJBD's mom did mushroom soup and salad and got me strawberry frosting for the words on the cake, J & J's parents did the yummy garlic/parsley french bread, and my stepdad hooked us up with alot of ice.







I didn't get pics of ppl eating b/c I was too busy stuffing my own face with food. :D

3. Give back: Make an honest effort to get along with my mother

So on NYE I did the opposite and didn't come home until 4:30am! Boy was she pissed; she stayed up all night waiting up for me. But I redeemed myself tonight. At first I was worried the party wouldn't happen b/c she was sooooooo mad at me, but my stepdad, my cousin, and I all did damage control so everything worked out in the end. I think she absolutely loved her party! And the surprise worked, she had no idea. Tonight was all about her, and just her, so I think that she felt extra special and loved. :)







For more pics, go to my flickr set.