fruit art

A coffin in the shape of a cocoa bean. Sweet dreams eh?

And an almost 360 degree view of a giant platter of glass fruits.
The colors were more spectacular in person.

These art pieces can be found at the San Francisco deYoung Museum.

q-pig vs. the seafood buffet

I normally don't like to eat at buffets because the food is usually not good and that causes me not to eat enough to justify the cost per person. The Boy doesn't like buffets either, mostly because he likes food to be prepared for him as he ordered it, and not left out for people to breathe upon and stuff. Anyway, with that being said, we went to Moonstar Buffet this past weekend. Why? I said I would only eat at a buffet if it had unlimited crab legs for me to enjoy, and he was just going to oblige my crab cravings.

The lunch buffet price was $19.99 per person and lunch was from 10am to 4pm. We got there at 2pm and stayed for a little over an hour. As evidenced below, I ate enough crab legs to justify the cost for the BOTH of us. It was yummy!

Plate #1 with some fried rice, some veggies, a mussel, and the crab legs/claws (looks like I got three claws and a couple of legs).


Plate #2 - a plate piled with crab claws/legs that were on ice. Ohhhh sooo yummy.


My plate of empty crab shells.


Plate #3 -- more crab legs and a bit more of other buffet food (I like variety).


After three plates of crab legs, I was all crabbed out. My fourth plate of food was all fruit slices and a coconut jello red bean dessert...and a sesame seed ball...and a marshmallow dipped in chocolate.

I'll have to come back here next time so I can enjoy some more crab legs.

Christmas eats

Christmas dinner was at The Boy's aunt's home in Novato. Here's the dinner spread:

Roast Pork
Broccolli and rice casserole.
Creamed spinach.
Baked yams.
Salad greens.
Dinner rolls.
Scalloped Potatoes.
My dinner plate - the first plate I shared with The Boy. I went back for seconds and thirds of the salad and scalloped potatoes.


And then there were desserts:

Apple Pie
Brownies
Banana Creme Pie and Chocolate Creme Pie
German Chocolate Cake
Chocolate Bundt Cake


And yes, I had a bite (and more) of everything shown here.

korean food goodness

I had dinner with a friend at one of our favorite Korean restaurants. I forget the name, but it's on the corner of 30th Avenue and Taraval Street in the Sunset district. And you must order the plate of fried chicken. YUMMY!!

Top plate is rice cakes in spicy sauce with silver noodles. Then there's the plate of fried chicken.
Pork Bulgolgi.
Small plates of appetizers.
There was also spicy tofu soup, which can be seen in the bowl in the lower right corner of the picture.

cute and funny christmas cake recipe

Christmas Cake Recipe

Ingredients:

* 2 cups flour
* 1 stick butter
* 1 cup of water
* 1 tsp baking soda
* 1 cup of sugar
* 1 tsp salt
* 1 cup of brown sugar
* Lemon juice
* 4 large eggs
* 200 gm nuts
* 2 bottles good wine
* 2 cups of dried fruit

Sample the wine to check quality. Take a large bowl, check the wine again. To be sure it is of the highest quality, pour one level cup and drink. Repeat.

Turn on the electric mixer. Beat butter in a large fluffy bowl. Add sugar and beat again. At this point it's best to make sure the wine is still OK. Try another cup... Just in case. Turn off the mixerer thingy. Break 2 eggs and add to the bowl and chuck in the cup of dried fruit.

Pick the dropped fruit up off floor. Mix on the turner. If the fried druit gets stuck in the beaterers just pry it loose with a drewscriver. Sample the wine to check for tonsisticity.

Next, sift two cups of salt. Or something. Check the wine.

Now shift the lemon juice and strain your nuts. Add one table. Add a spoon of sugar, or some fink.
Whatever you can find. Greash the oven. Turn the cake tin 360 degrees and try not to fall over.
Don't forget to beat off the turner.

Finally, throw the bowl through the window. Finish the wine and wipe counter with cat. Go to Tesco and buy cake.

Bingle Jells!

Merry Christmas!!

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one LLM semester down, one more to go

Just emailed in my take-home exam and now I am officially done!

Time for some sleep, laundry, and packing.

San Francisco here I come!

YAY!!

christmas lights

Recently decided to venture out in the freezing cold weather to see the National Christmas Tree located in front of the White House (aka Obama's front yard). These were some of the better snapshots during the night. The lights were so pretty!





There was a Christmas tree for every US state and territory. The ornaments for each tree were donated by various organizations.




The building in the background here is the home of the Daughters of the American Revolution Society.

Hopefully, I can go see some more pretty lights around DC before all of it gets taken down in the new year.

more pottery painting fun

I'm taking another mental brain break by quickly posting about some photos I had from pottery painting that I realized I never uploaded to the blog.

In honor of L's birthday, I took her to Color Me Mine so we could have some girl bonding creative time in eating cupcakes and painting pottery.

This picture here is of real cupcakes from my all favorite Georgetown Cupcakes. Not only are they pretty to look at, they were yummy in the tummy.
And true to cupcake enthusiasts, L chose a giant cupcake cookie jar to paint. It was huge, which you really can't tell in this photo. Let's just say that it was about 9 inches high and probably a good 9 inches in diameter.

And here is the finished cupcake cookie jar! Not sure if L actually keeps it at her office with candy in it.


For my painting project, I told L that I would do whatever she wants as that was my present for her birthday. The inspiration? This picture below with some minor color changes.
Here's what I was able to actually paint...
And the finished products! They're "large sushi plates," so L better have them out for display the next time I go to her place for dinner. (just kidding, L!)
I really love painting ceramics. Maybe I should actually try making some pottery first and then painting it. I wonder if there is a make-your-own-pottery studio around here that will teach me how to use one of those spinning wheel thingys.

FML* story of the day.

This morning, I was trying to take a Mucinex pill. The packaging is really tough to separate the pill from the casing it's in. You have to separate the paper from the plastic and pull it apart. That didn't work for me, so I used my fingernails to just poke a hole into the paper/foil, and just then the pill popped out of the case...not onto my hand but popped way out, landed on the floor and then rolled under my bed, to the far side. I was in no mood to get down on my hands and knees to go searching for the pill, so I just opened up another one. That initial pill is still under the bed at this moment.

Then, I made a quick trip to the grocery to get some food and a new box of kleenex. Upon arriving home, I tore off the plastic off the Kleenex box and tore off the paper to where the tissues come out. Then I proceeded to throw the box on my bed so it could be within reach when I need it. The damn Kleenex box continues rolling on the bed until it hits the wall and then falls into the crack between the bed and the wall, ending up under my bed.

FML*

Because my arms were too short to take a firm grasp on the kleenex box through the crack between my bed and the wall, I had to get down on my tummy and crawl under the bed to retrieve the box.

Seriously, FML.

*If you don't know what FML means, it's "F*ck my life." Just learned that over Thanksgiving too!

stuffed cupcakes

I am taking a break from studying (even though I have an exam in 3 hours, I need a mental brain break right now) to share with you my memories of some very yummy stuffed cupcakes.

Yes, I said stuffed cupcakes. What are they? Does the name not imply the meaning? These are cupcakes that have a creamy stuffing inside the cake! See, that wasn't so hard was it?

I was introduced to these stuffed delicacies while I was spending Thanksgiving with my first-year roommate J at her home in Nutley, New Jersey. The place is called The Petite Cafe and it used to be a hamburger joint with a little cupcake counter. Then the cupcake craze took over and now the place has a giant cupcake counter. I think they still serve hamburgers.
mmmm, looky at all the pretty cupcakes!
I had a really hard time deciding on which cupcakes to try (J let me choose four!), but finally decided on the Chocolate Kismet (peanut buttery chocolatey goodness!)...
...the Cool Runnings (something with mango in it)...

...I think a plain vanilla with chocolate filling...

...and a Red Velvet.
And this is what a stuffed cupcake looks like once you dissect it.
The cake was very moist. The red velvet frosting could have been a little better, and the filling was just the cream cheese frosting, so it was like eating a double dose of frosting. The Cool Runnings with mango flavor was really yummy, I recall that the mango filling was actually different from the vanilla frosting but I could be wrong (I've been suffering from a cold and all tastebuds have been MIA). The Kismet was just delicious due to the fact that it was chocolate. And the vanilla was good for something so ordinary.

I asked J to send me 30 stuffed cupcakes for my 30th birthday next year. Let's see if she comes through with it. ;-)