MOVED!

As of March, I'll be blogging officially at mango on an apple.  Change your bookmarks, update your links...See you there!!!

25 things - the food edition

What a great way to waste away Sunday afternoon of the long weekend...

I think the premise is 25 Foods/Meals that are memorable?  Not sure, but here I go!

1. Grandma (mom's mom)'s wontons are the best I've ever had anywhere, and even my mom can't quite duplicate them.  I used to ask for them whenever I went back to visit.  Grandma will now claim she doesn't know how to make them, nor did she ever make them in her life...very sad.
2. Grandma (dad's mom)'s "healthy congee" was my favourite growing up.  Dad's mom's actually not that dazzling in the kitchen but this is the one thing she couldn't mess up.
3. Tempura on the street corner near my apartment in Taiwan.  They sell out by 9pm daily, while the rest of the vendors tend to stay there till about midnight with their food carts.
4. Rice noodle soup on another street corner by my apartment in Taiwan.  With a side of pork cheeks doused in garlicky sauce, it's heavenly.
5. Vermicelli noodles in Ximending in Taipei with Iggy, eaten standing up outside the shop because they're too famous to seat their patrons.
6. Deep dish pizza at Uno's in Chicago.  It was a deceiving little bastard that I couldn't conquer in one sitting.
7. Cheesecake with strawberry topping from Save-on-Foods.
8. Chocolate mousse cake my mom made for my 18th birthday party.  Every other cake has paled in comparison, including the more recent ones my mom made.
9. Steak frites at Pastis with Alex - he was incredibly sick, and I was incredibly full from eating all day.  We wanted to kick ourselves for not being able to indulge as much as we should've.
10. The warm platter at Zwolf Apostelkeller in Vienna.  Best meal on our backpacking trip.  Best German/Austrian food ever.
11. Lobster meals by the sea with my dad.  He takes me there every time I'm in Taiwan, regardless of what's actually in season, just so we can both satisfy our lobster cravings.
12. Some type of melon (don't know the English translation for it) we had in the Pescadores Islands in Taiwan.  They are supposed to be a vegetable but they were so full of flavour and so juicy that even though I never liked them before, I became a convert.
13. Barbeques in my grandma's front yard (we closed the gate).  It was always a fun gathering of family and friends, lots of good food, and full of silly conversations until the wee hours.
14. Candies my grandpa gave me after dinner.  He'd give me one after dinner every time we were over, without fail.  My grandpa's the best.
15. Chocolat chaud at Angelina's in Paris.  That's what heaven tastes like.
16. Scrambled eggs from the Queen's Head in England.  The chefs would add two parts eggs, one part heavy cream, and one part butter.
17. Sprinkles "black-on-white" cupcakes.  Never was there a store-bought cupcake known to be so moist and chocolatey, with the lightest buttercream that had the best balance of butter and sugar.
18. Full breakfast at Campus Hi-Fi in London.  Definitely my favourite greasy spoon breakfast. 
19. Sushi from Sushi Marche - spicy tuna (genius use of green onions) and kamikaze rolls (genius use of lemon peel).  
20. Frrrozen Hot Chocolate from Serendipity3.
21. Grilled artichoke hearts at Mercatto.
22. Truffle frites from V Bar at Hotel Valencia on Santana Row in San Jose.
23. Stir-fry potatoes with rice vinegar that my mom makes.  Sounds weird, but so delicious.
24. "Chinese spaghetti" (nothing like the Italian version, don't worry) that my mom makes.  I just can't do what she does.
25. Our last meal at the Queen's Head.  Finally treated with some food respect as a paying customer.

roots

so, it is officially february and has been for a few days, and i'm sad to announce that i'm a bit behind my overly-optimistic schedule (are we surprised, really)...

however, here's an update and an exciting announcement (for me at least):

- video for 2009 department meeting was a hit, and it's being shown to the president and ceo of the whole company worldwide tomorrow!  i feel like a rock star.  it's complete, but i need to export it in a smaller format to be embedded into our country manager's blog, as well as post it onto our department's wiki site.

- flash project for my fantastic eyebrow guru is almost complete - i have all the frames built, just need to string it all together.  i will be showing her the work so far hopefully early next week and then from there plan to upload and push it live next weekend (in time for valentine's day)!  it's been interesting...it was my first time working in flash (kids, when i was making websites, flash didn't even exist, so don't balk at me and my blissful ignorance).

- third project, 52 restaurants in 52 weeks, came to an abrupt halt on monday.  one of our founders is extremely annoyed with some of us that the work has stalled (esp. the actual restaurant reviews), that he has stopped speaking to the rest of us.  i'm a little bit relieved but also a bit sad as i had already started toying with the design.  it's not uploaded yet, so if you go to the link, there's nothing to look at...but still!  oh yeah, and the whole friend-not-speaking-to-friend thing is so not cool.

- fourth project, and my announcement - we're moving!!  er, not physically.  this lil' blog is moving into a bigger home!!  i have been getting back to my roots (my so-called web design roots, that is) and bought a domain and have started some work.  as of tonight, wordpress is installed and a mock-up is drawn for the layout, so i will be working furiously away to get that live as soon as possible.  i love blogging, and hope to make my blog/the site much more fun to visit...while gaining some serious readership so i don't feel like i'm boring the same people over and over again.

righties, that's it.  as much as i'd love to stay here and chat and install new fonts onto my computer (yet another obsession of mine once i get into the photoshopping mood), i must get to bed.  i have failed to show up at the gym way too often due to sleeping late!!

25 things - from facebook

Instead of posting this on facebook, I thought I'd do it here. IMHO I think facebook notes are a bit too attention-grabbing for my introverted self ;)

Rules: You are supposed to write a note with 25 random things, facts, habits, or goals about you. At the end, choose 25 people to be tagged. You have to tag the person who tagged you. If I tagged you, it's because I want to know more about you.

1. I wear my heart on my sleeve. I can't pretend to like someone I cannot stand, so I have stopped trying.

2. I hate small talk. At some point, I think I lost that ability to be keen about other people's lives and carry a conversation. I distinctly remember being a very big brown-nosing conversationalist with teachers, but I really don't know what happened to that version of me.

3. Despite what you may think, I'm very conscious of the fact that sometimes I tend to dominate conversations and they end up being about me too much. I'm trying, really!

4. There are days when I sincerely believe that if I don't eat chocolate right then and there, I will actually lose my will to live.

5. I'm afraid of all insects and bugs, and I inadvertently go into hysterics when confronted with cockroaches, ladybugs, slugs, or grass snakes too close to me (i.e. jumping up and attempting to flee the scene, literally). I know because I've encountered the aforementioned four types of bugs and that's what happened. The list may be longer, but let's hope I never find out.

6. My irrational fear of something as cute as ladybugs comes from the time when the city of London released millions upon millions of ladybugs to "help the crops" and half of the population ended up on my kitchen wall in my apartment. They fell (that's how they "land") on top of my head during dinner, onto my freshly baked cookies, etc. They made me really sad. And they looked evil.

7. I will read and re-read my favourite books over and over, and I will pick them up and start reading from random pages.

8. I get really dizzy when I'm rock-climbing, but it usually goes away near the end of the session. I think I might have vertigo due to heights, so I close my eyes when I get to the top.

9. I don't know what to do with other people's babies. When people bring their babies in to work and everyone's cooing and asking to hold the babies, I keep my arms crossed (subconsciously). I think it's weird to pass around babies, and I would only do it if there wasn't a crowd gathering and I knew both of the parents well enough. Perhaps I'm also a bit shy about the fact that I have no maternal instincts to want to hold, rock, coo, or sing to other people's babies.

10. I love big dogs, but that's not always been the case. When I was little and terrified of everything, I don't think I enjoyed any type of dogs very much. I also hear my mom's dog knocked me over once in a while when I was a toddler. Oh, and I still don't love it when dogs lick, but I will accept them for who they are and what their instincts tell them to do.

11. I love to eat. I don't think I have ever really missed a meal due to my biological clockwork that demands food at typical meal times.

12. While I love buying shoes and handbags, there are some things I just don't can't bring myself to buy. I am not really able to indulge on expensive clothing (just can't justify it), other than coats, and I don't know how to buy accessories. I'm the least accessorized girl I know.

13. I hate the way my voice sounds.

14. I have absolutely no [conscious] knowledge of the fact that I grind my teeth like mad at night. 

15. For the past few years, at the beginning of every year, I tell myself, "dude, you're (insert age) this year, seriously, get a grip and actually lose the weight you've been meaning to lose." Then I go and gain some more weight.

16. Although I keep saying I want to be (insert occupation) when I grow up, I am held back from actually quitting my "normal-person-office-job" because of my upbringing and the beliefs instilled in me.

17. I am an incredibly tense person. I don't know how to relax my body and I find myself clenching my fists or tightening my shoulders even during massages, manicures, and other relaxing activities.

18. One of my favourite things about myself is that I work to avoid gender stereotypes. I know more about cars, computers, gadgets, and sports than most girls I know. I gave up in the tools and machinery section though - getting to know the kitchen was more alluring ;)

19. I have a very sharp sense of smell, and a lot of smells trigger distinct memories for me.

20. I love school. I loved it even when I didn't speak English. If I could, I would stay in school and work through different majors that interest me.

21. Despite popular belief, I do not want, or plan on having, a fancy wedding.  I maintain that the max number of guests would top out at 50.  Yes, I am willing to forego fancy registries, big pouffy dresses, floral arrangements, etc. etc.  I'm not quite ready to let go of a beautiful cake, and something couture, but that can be easily arranged.

23. I wore makeup consistently to work everyday last year and can count the number of days I didn't with my hands.  That was one of my resolutions last year, and I'm quite proud of achieving it.  I didn't extend the resolution into 2009.

24. I have never tried any illegal substances.  My motto there is go big or go home.

25. I used to believe my mom was a witch riding away on a broomstick while I slept at night.  She was that magical and scary to me.

Now...I will tag Kasia, Allie, and Spends2Much...and my sister, wherever her blog is...but I think she's already done this.

  

one down, three to go

four days before the month is over, and one of my projects is finally done.  i will share, in time, a bit of it - it's a video compilation of our department's year in review, done in iMovie.  it was my first time playing with the application and i'm definitely impressed.  it's a good tool to get your feet wet, but it's not super precise and full of tricks that it becomes too intimidating.  by the end i started feeling a little limited by the functions available, but overall, it's better than some of the online apps for making videos, and it's done straight out of materials you have on your computer that you can pull up easily (i.e. it links to iPhoto and iTunes so you can lay soundtracks efficiently from your own library).

the other three projects...well, my goal remains that they be wrapped up by february 1st so i can breathe a little.  i'm currently curled up in bed with my mac working furiously in Flash on one of them.  the contractors are in to re-do my floors (YAY WE GET HARDWOOD FLOORING!  FOR (ALMOST) FREE!  THANKS FLOODERS!) so i have no place to squat but in bed.  i actually quite like this holed-up-ness.  i'm not wasting my time in front of the idiot box tonight, and i'm forced to work comfortably from my bed with a cup of tea, and a magazine at the ready.

speaking of magazines - i am getting my hands on the newest martha stewart living!  it has such a pretty cover and i'm totally judging the book by its cover.

hiatus

as you may have noticed, i've gone on a bit of a hiatus. i have quite a few projects going on outside of work, so life is hectic trying to get them all wrapped up. i hope to do so by end of january (another lofty goal), so hopefully i'll be back up and running soon.

meanwhile, i do owe a few back-dated posts as well, so watch out for those. january hasn't slipped by unnoticed.

random thought - caught my reflection in a glass display case on the wall outside the caf. what's stuck on my butt? oh wait, that is part of my butt. OMG!

another random thought - hey china, haven't you learned from enough parents, and perhaps even Adam and Eve, that temptation only drives the wrong type of behaviour? seriously, do you really think that censoring out parts of obama's speech on communism won't peak your people's interest to find out what exactly you bleeped out?

sprinkles cupcakes

seeing as how much i adore cupcakes, i decided to scout out cupcake destinations in dallas...and came across sprinkles cupcakes from beverly hills.  score!!  this is the same company that sells its cupcake mixes at williams-sonoma, so i definitely took note and made sure to stop by there. 

internet, my dedication was rewarded more than i had imagined possible.

clockwise from top left: chocolate marshmallow (so-so), chocolate peppermint (festive), black and white (SOOOO GOOD), lemon coconut (SOOOO GOOD), red velvet (delish), and strawberry (so-so)

cute menu card on the flavours of the day, postcards, and a red velvet cupcake mix...everything looks like so much fun and so delicious!

conclusion: 2008 + introduction: 2009

2008 memories come to me in bits and pieces, and it feels like the year went by doubly-quickly.  it began mildly as i returned to work in january, and as the winter wore on, the coldness took some steroids and tripped out at us with lots and lots of snow, slush, coldness, ice, and relentless mercy.  from this remarkably cruel beginning, i learned...

• i need to get away to somewhere warm in the middle of winter, or else it just feels so depressing by april
• i will never forget february 1st.  that day marked the culmination of a month of extremely tight and stressful deadlines, strained relationships with the agency, and working overtime just to have it all explode so perfectly in sync with a blizzard on a friday afternoon.  it also marked the beginning of a year of whirlwind campaigns that would leave me often deflated and exhausted at the end of a long week; it made me appreciate vacation time so much more in june when i finally took some time off for myselff
• my favourite chocolate cake recipe in february, by chance when allison was visiting and i decided to bake a cake in celebration.
• when i got my promotion to senior analyst, it also led me to a dangerous place where i would start questioning the need for a new role, my expected timeline for the next movement in my career and the next promotion.
• as first-time homeowners moving into a craptastic home that so needed our attention and care, we underestimated our patience for all the highs and lows that come with the ongoing process.  it can never be done in a matter of days - and it's true that the house&home featured homes usually say that the owner worked on it for a couple of years before being in the magazine.
• to appreciate and "make-do" with our city: we began to do a bit more exploring around the city, and that continued throughout summer.  the weather wasn't always cooperative, but i would like to think we made the best of it.  my birthday slipped by quietly but with great company and food (mmm waffles).
• vacation is important. quiet time is important. there's also a joy to staying at home doing absolutely nothing, and that luxury should be taken advantage of at every available opportunity.
• as i got older, i became more wasteful and less concerned about saving money - bad idea.  
• as i got older, i became less capable of knowing my limit when alcohol is around - another bad idea.

on that note, in 2009 i want to

• eat out less often
• stick to a budget
• get away in February 
• take time to just relax with Alex around my birthday
• take more "me" time regularly
• try a different cookie recipe every couple of weeks
• eat healthy despite having cookies every couple of weeks
• hit the gym more
• rock-climb on a more regular basis
• take a break from my good friend alcohol until my birthday
• get a bike in the summer and go biking more often
• learn to swim (this makes the list every year but i have yet to accomplish it...)

Happy new year!

[no pictures because i'm being lazy]

texan christmas

This year was the first year ever that I did not spend Christmas with my family, and this is the ruckus that I found - 

- from 0 degrees Celsius in Dallas the day we landed, to 28 degrees on Friday - hello up there, can you make up your mind on the weather?

- Republican bumper stickers like "YOUR WALLET - the only place Democrats want to drill", "SARAH!", and other interesting sayings countered by a few Obama/Biden ones around town.  My favourite was "Texan Democrat" - talk about oxymoron, haha

- Texan POV's such as "well if he (Obama) wants to take the guns away I'm going to make sure he doesn't take mine.  Otherwise only criminals will have guns and I can't let that happen..." on and on...

Continuing with the theme of oxymorons, we also had a very traditional British Christmas feast despite being in Texas!  (Lori, we used plenty of salt & pepper...you'd be proud of your heritage.)

Grandma making the best roasted potatoes!

Mr Helpful in PJ's all day until Christmas dinner

Brussels sprouts...yum yum

The silverware makes its annual appearance

They even have different colour themes for tree decorations in Texas ;)

Real trees in Texas cost about $400, hence the fake one!!

Lovely message left for us in the coach house

The turkey being roasted in the coach house

Merry Christmas!

2nd bi-annual christmas party

Alex and I have bi-annual Christmas parties.  Originally I thought maybe we'll start doing them annually after this year (last year was a disaster to begin with and the party got semi-hijacked to a different location, on a different date, with a different concept called pot-luck).  However, after the past week - see you all in 2010 peeps!!

I had a project plan for tasks to do every day of the week leading up to the party, as I believe firmly that if I'm opening the doors, I'd better treat my guests right and there's never too much enthusiasm.  The plans actually got put into motion in October when I ordered custom invitations from redstamp.com.  I'm obsessed with custom letterpress and stationery shops these days so I jumped on the opportunity to get these invitations made.  Two years ago I sourced shimmery champagne-coloured card stock and embossed the invitations myself, which took a long time, and gave me a hand cramp!

Anyway, this week has been full of baking, prepping, cooking, shopping at various specialty stores, procuring cheap(er) amaryllis, etc.  I followed the rule of 6-7 pieces of food per guest for the hors d'oeuvres, and since we invited at least 30 people, you can imagine the sheer volume of food passing through the kitchen this week.  I would basically be in the kitchen from the moment I got home until about midnight!!

The final menu included crab cakes, duck crepes, curry chicken purses, brie and cranberry spanakopita, veggies and chips with pan-fried onion dip, lamb bites with roasted red peppers, 4 mushroom tarts with truffles, cherry tomatoes stuffed with pesto on a skewer with bocconcini, smoked salmon with creme fraiche, and prosciutto with dijon mustard.  The desserts table included chocolate cups filled with fresh fruit, shortbread cookies dipped in chocolate, mini coconut cupcakes, chocolate chip skor bits cookies from allison, and gingerbread cookies!!  

The party started at 7:30 (Terence and gang arrived about 30 minutes earlier to help with last minute preparations as I was super stressed out and considered not doing my hair or makeup just to make sure everything was ready), and went on until 3:00am!!!!!  It was a smashing success and I think we had about 24 people show up despite the snow storm that hit last minute, and one of my guests had to be picked up with a garbage bag in hand, so I think we did very well!  We polished off 18.5 bottles of alcohol...although if everyone had read the instructions on the invite and brought a bottle of champagne, we would've gone through more I should think!!

Getting the bar ready - Julia was the barmaid for the evening

Main food table

Dessert table

Favours - Santa-hat-shaped cupcake pops

Not quite the whole picture of 18.5 empty bottles

Drunken self portrait at 3am

bake fest 2008

Julie and I have been talking about baking goodies and packing them up as care packages for Christmas to send to our mutual friends.  The idea started in 2006 when we wanted to send cookies to Vartan, Dave, and Logan.  So finally this year we organized a baking date, and I procured all sorts of materials and ingredients and got prepped for a day of baking goodness.

The baking ingredients (partial).  Not in photo: pre-mixed shortbread and chocolate chip cookie dough, and brownie and gingerbread cookie ingredients, plus the cookie cutters and other fun decorating things.

My oven turned on at about 3:30 and went straight through to 9:30, and we made superbly delicious gingerbread cookies (that Julie and Alex kept on stealing when I wasn't looking), my favourite chocolate chip cookies (from the NYTimes article), and amazing chocolate brownies, and countless shortbread figures that Julie decorated with gusto.  She even made a Blair Waldorf with a pearl headband, come on...

We packaged up the cookies in tins, bags, and these amazing boxes I found at Michael's.  By the way, Michael's is awesome - there's soooo much going on in there for fun things you can do, and these boxes were just a cute little example.  I ended up spending a little over an hour in there just browsing when I went in...haha.

If you don't feel Christmas-y yet, I hope the cookies help you get there!!!

12 days of Christmas

12 cookie boxes lined with tissue
11 days until i get on a plane
10 goodie bags with twine
9 bottles of sprinkles and dragees
8 lightly floured winter cookie cutters
7 types of goodies (shortbread, shortbread with chocolate, linzer, ginger molasses, chocolate chunk, peppermint meringues, brownies)
6 care packages to fill and mail
5 pounds of callebaut semi-sweet chocolate
4 pounds of unsalted butter
3 bags of icing in red, green, and white
2 mini gingerbread cookie cutters
1 very overwhelmed mango

see above for weekend plans.

buncha random thoughts

I can't quite start working yet even though I'm painfully aware that it's 9:44 already, and my three-page-long to-do list isn't getting any shorter. I think I just need to rant and get all these thoughts out of my head!

First of all - Christina got married! I was totally hoping to get to her wedding in Taipei as part of my trip to Taiwan in Q1, but there she went having a small ceremony with just family...congrats Christina! :)

My desktop background is a picture of Nyac the otter. The same picture can be found under my entries with the tag "otter". She was adorable!

Kasia got my package, which is great...I still owe the girl at the post office money for the bubble wrap stuff to hide the cookies in, I shall go pay her back some time tonight. She will obviously have no idea that I nicked two of those bubble wrap bags for my cookies but it's an honest thing to do to pay her back, right? I was desperate!

Trip to Taiwan - I need to start doing research! I think I want to swing by Bali for a week of sun and relaxation (and visit that healer from Eat, Pray, Love)! The thing is, everything looks kind of expensive right now so I have to do some more research to find cheaper alternatives and plan things a bit more DIY to save money. You're all invited to join me and Terence in Bali, by the way.

South Beach - I have been on it since Monday morning. I just woke up and decided it was time, and so far, I am incredibly glad I am doing it. My eating habits have gotten SO BAD. When I think about what I might've been eating if I weren't on South Beach, I cringe. I would've probably had a nice greasy English muffin with sausages and an egg for breakfast, had a soup and sandwich for lunch (which is probably the healthiest part of the day, usually), and snacked on Halloween candy from my coworkers, eaten lots of fruit (another semi-good thing) for the afternoon, binged on rice cakes or crackers as soon as I got home, eaten some sort of a dinner (not always healthy), and snacked on whatever else came my way, including anything I bake. For example, yesterday I went to Loblaws to buy some stuff because I'm having some coworkers over tonight. The old me would've cracked open the Pringles right there in the parking lot because I hadn't had dinner yet and was starving, and probably would've bought a Kinder Surprise or something to "tide me over". It's not that I was eating a lot in quantity, it's that I had absolutely NO filter and would just eat whatever was available around me - it's like I was constantly walking around in Costco waiting for samples to be thrown at me. That, my friends, is dangerous.

My naturopathic doctor (yes, I went back) did have a chat with me about the way I have been putting on weight, especially in the last year. As you may all have heard because I whine about it so much, my ass grew a healthy two inches in the last year, and I don't even want to think about how much my waist has grown. I never used to put on weight in my butt; if anything, my limbs were more likely to suffer in hard times (see pictures from beginning of third year after a summer of toast with my freshly churned, delicious butter in England). Anyway, he mentioned that in stressful times, your organs can't process fats as quickly and you tend to gain weight differently...so basically, the last year and a half have been stressful for me and that should explain the weight gain in awkward areas. It's kinda funny, because I really don't have overall complaints about my job and the type of work I do, and I never thought of it as stressful in a harmful way. I'm much happier than I was at my previous job, that's for sure.

Christmas party...I feel so disorganized this year. I think there's a bit of work to be done with decorations (will be starting this weekend - first official December weekend), and the menu planning is driving me bonkers in my head. I kind of know what I want to do, but it's so scattered in my brain and I feel like I need to be constantly jotting down things and ingredients to make sure I don't forget anything. I need to write myself a project plan!! Just need time to sit down and do that now...So many ideas in my head, so little time. Also, I take slight offense to people feeling like they need to bring food. I'm not sure why, other than maybe it interferes with my masterpiece slightly and goodness knows I can't have that. So if you're reading this, and you're coming to the party, please refrain from bringing food. Especially the store-bought saddo-looking type. Homemade food? I am open to discussion, but no promises.

Christmas presents - again, another drawn out list of the nonexistent presents this year. We've decided to go super small this year, so there's quite a bit of brainstorming going on, as well as supplies-procurement for those DIY gifts. I'm excited though, somehow living frugally thrills me a little bit because we had so much fun living frugally in England and forgetting about material goods for a whole summer. I find that my life was much simpler back then and thus more time to have fun and relax!

Anyway, ranting time is over and it's 2:40pm now - I guess I should get back to work ;)

Happy Birthday Jakub!

These cookies never made it to you because the colours spread and the bears didn't look so good the next day. So you got snowflakes instead. Sorry kid, to give you a reality check so early on in life :)

december

December is here!!

I spent a lot of September being sick and enjoying the after-effects of food poisoning. I remember two things about October: Thanksgiving cottage and apple picking. I have no real recollection of how November could've gone by so fast, but it did. Someone out there is cheating us time!!

The happy thing is, I finally got around to organizing the advent calendar this weekend. This is my advent calendar this year:

It's a reindeer, who has a giant headache right now (har, har).

The reindeer is from Pottery Barn, and the numbers are all sugar cookies! I didn't get a bigger reindeer, thinking this was big enough. It is, for the most part, but we learned rather quickly that the reindeer's parts are quite fragile (broken legs, broken antlers, etc. are all possibilities) so I had to distribute the weight a little more, hence the stars on the actual torso.

Time to get into the holiday spirit even more! I can't wait <3

mini brownie parcels, v. 2

this is what i've been working on:

after attempting bakerella's" cupcake pops last time when i had a long weekend, i tried again last weekend with some more store-bought cupcakes as a small sample. they turned out slightly better as i got a bit more experience with dipping the little bites, but overall still not up to my standards. however, i threw those pictures out there anyway and convinced tina at work that she wanted them for her holiday party this weekend...and so off i went on my third try.

i baked my "holy mother chocolate cake" this time, which by the way is the best chocolate cake recipe ever. it is the perfectly moist basic chocolate cake for any type of project, except maybe cupcakes because they're that moist that they don't hold their shape as well as a typical cupcake. i made a delicious chocolate buttercream icing from melted dark chocolate, and added my own twist to it with reducing some icing sugar in the recipe and substituting in some cocoa powder for an even richer chocolate flavour. yum!

blended altogether, i froze them first as they were shaped into balls, and then took them out from the freezer a couple of hours later to shape into squares. i found it was much easier to shape them into decent looking squares that way because they're not as pliable and melty when they're half frozen. then back in the freezer so the dipping process will be easier and faster.
dipping turned out to be rather smooth (ha, no pun intended) for the first 4 or 5 i did, then the cake started flaking off whenever it felt like it, and i had to change the white chocolate and start over, and then the chocolate was all lumpy and wouldn't melt nicely...ughhh! by this time it was about midnight and i was ready to call it quits and pretend the whole thing never happened. i was also ranting on and on about how people should stick to what they know. i like my chocolate chip cookies (all versions), my cupcakes (all versions), and my sugar cookies. i think that's a good enough repetoire for an average person. anyway...i stuck it out and made some more horrendous looking brownie parcels that were clearly sub-par but at this point i just wanted to get it over with.

then this morning i got up early and finished off with the red ribbons in fondant. would have loved to do actual bows on top but the ambition just wasn't in me at 6 in the morning...so here they are, finished product!

the little brownie parcels dipped in white chocolate

and finished off with red fondant ribbons

all packaged up as party favours!

are you kidding me?

I have problems with people who can't spell definitely.
- it's a word we see daily and you can't be arsed to remember how the letters line up next to each other in the correct order??

I have problems with people who think their creative license allows them to "bypass" grammar rules.
- then what's the point of the little brown handbook that is neither little nor brown? it doesn't matter who you are, you sound less educated when you think you can start sentences with "and" just because it sounds better/more clever.

I have major problems with people who overhype the twilight series
- i bought the first book so i could see what the hype is all about, and i would know what i'm watching when i go see the movie with sexy cedric (from harry potter, thank you very much). the writing made me cringe. it was so elementary. maybe she did an overly good job of personifying a teenage girl but it just lacked depth and i can't believe i am going to say this, "thought leadership". it was all so superficial that yeah, you feel like you're there, but you're there in a two dimensional picture! ughh. you could also tell that there was some awkward thesaurus use. remember when you were in grade 8 and you had to write a paper and you thought it would be really clever to go and find a thesaurus so you can replace words in your paper with "big words"? yeah, that's what the author did here. some words just don't make sense. it's like instead of me saying i'm a little sad today, all of a sudden i'm "poignant". say what? i am not exaggerating when i say i flipped through most of the book, getting the jist (which i do have to admit is interesting), but not reading the horrendous piece of non-literature.

To be fair, I'll let you be the judge. Here's an excerpt.

It was impossible, being in this house, not to realize that Charlie had never gotten over my mom. It made me uncomfortable.

I didn't want to be too early to school, but I couldn't stay in the house anymore. I donned my jacket - which had the feel of a biohazard suit - and headed out into the rain.

My favourite word in this excerpt is definitely "don" as a verb.

"How old are you?"
"Seventeen" he answered promptly.
"And how long have you been seventeen?"
His lips twitched as he stared at the road, "A while", he admitted at last.
"Okay", I smiled, pleased that he was still being honest with me. He stared down at me with watchful eyes, much as he had before when he'd been worried that I would go into shock. I smiled wider in encouragment, and he frowned.
"Don't laugh but how can you come out during the daytime?"
He laughed anyway, "Myth"
"Burned by the sun?"
"Myth"
"Sleeping in coffins"
"Myth", he hesitated for a moment, and a peculiar tone entered his voice. "I can't sleep."
It took me a moment to absorb that, "At all?"
"Never", he said, his voice nearly inaudible. He turned to look at me with a wistful expression. His golden eyes held mine and I lost my train of thought. I stared at him until he looked away.
"You haven't asked me the most important question yet." His voice was hard now and when he looked at me his eyes were cold. "
I blinked, still dazed, "Which one is that?"
"You aren't concerned about my diet?" he asked sarcastically.
"Oh", I murmered, "that"
"Yes that", His voice was bleak, "Don't you want to know if I drink blood?"

Okay, wow, how many adverbs did you need after each "he said" or "she said"s?

Why am I so irked about all this? See picture below. All I have to say is, BAH.

First of all, freaking idiot headline writers, give your facts context!! The last Harry Potter was released in 2007, and it sold 8.3 million copies in the first 24 hours in the US. THE US ALONE! I suspect the data provided is Chapters/Indigo data only, and sorry to break it to you Onex/Indigo jerks, but nobody cares about the sales at your company and your company alone for these books. In 2007, there was only one Harry Potter released, and the previous release was TWO WHOLE YEARS AGO that obviously by 2007 people would've purchased all the books they needed in the series. So Indigo has compared the sales of one book to a whole freaking series of books. ARRRGGGHHH.

the first snowfall

i have to admit, it looks pretty exaggerated here.
blame the long(er) exposure.

someone wrote x-mas (with their shoes i guess)?
put a smile on my face.

ha, not so lounge-y now, are we...

i can't believe it's already here!!

so far it's been pretty tame (i.e. the snow hasn't reallllly coated the ground). perfect day to get some baking started though - i need to get some pictures out there for my holiday "business". today's cookies and this weekend i'm hoping to make more cupcake bites so that by next week i should have a pretty full portfolio of goodies to showcase.

things on my mind:

a) google party tomorrow night. it conflicts with the class i'm taking in the evenings and my class is only four sessions, so missing one is kind of a big deal. i'm still debating how i will approach the conflict because i love everything google (c'mon, who doesn't), and i already missed the yahoo! party last thursday due to class so i feel like i've been good enough to deserve a break.

b) i should go to class though. it's a beginner's cake decorating class and since i failed miserably at making roses last week, i should really go so i don't become the worst student in the class. i'm supposed to be good at this shizzie! i tried practising tonight but my royal icing is too runny to practice real piping, esp. flowers, and i don't have a strong enough blender to make real royal icing. bahhhh.

finally, a picture sample of my hard work tonight.

nigella's chocolate pudding

we made this for our anniversary dinner on saturday night. it's so easy to make once you get the ingredients together, and so delicious! the most amazing thing about it is definitely the "wow" factor - you expect to get desserts like this in fancy restaurants.

from Nigella Express (mine's signed with love from Nigella. Just sayin'.)

Glitzy Chocolate Puddings

25g 70% cacao dark chocolate
25g unsalted butter, softened
50g white sugar
1 egg
10g all purpose flour
pinch of baking soda
small pinch of salt

Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.

Break up the dark chocolate and melt in microwave with the butter. I melted it in 10-15 second intervals because burnt chocolate smells absolutely horrendous and lingers forever. Once melted, set aside to cool a bit.

Using a mixer, beat the eggs and sugar until thick, pale, and mousse-like. This took about 3 minutes for me on a medium setting on my handheld KitchenAid mixer.

Gently fold in the flour, baking soda, and salt into the egg and sugar mixture. Then fold in the chocolate mixture and mix until just blended. Pour into two ramekins and put in the oven.

Bake for about 20-25 minutes - it'll puff up significantly higher and the top will look just about done. The best thing is if you take it out early, it'll be a little gooey inside, which doesn't really hurt anyone either ;)

While the puddings are baking...

Melt another 40g dark chocolate with 15g soft butter. Stir with a spoon - it should look smooth and glossy. Break up a Crunchie bar or just plain honeycomb if you have some.

Drizzle the top of the puddings with the chocolate glaze and top with the honeycomb. Voila, simple and absolutely delectable.

random photos from the past week

since i've been so AWOL so far in november, i thought i'd use some pictures to describe what i've been up to in the last week. i'm not going to make any excuses: i've been pretty useless since that drunken debacle and my stomach is still paying for the recklessness.

one of my finds at the william ashley sale - such a cute little casserole
beats the boring old corningware stuff

champagne for the special occasion...brought it all the way from paris to nerja to barcelona to toronto, in one piece! too bad we can't say the same about the artwork we bought in montmartre...

calligraphing the invites...
i was feeling particularly DIY/martha-y this year

right now my contractor is doing the kitchen backsplash. yes, it is 10:37pm on a monday night, but he's dedicated. so i'm blogging to be polite even though it's 37 minutes past my bedtime.

stay tuned for complete kitchen pics! we're almost done our whole place, just waiting to get photos into the frames and the chandelier up in the dining room!! we've come a looooong way!!