Christmas Festivities

The winter holidays came and went faster then I would have liked this year. We were late putting up the tree and started a new home project just after the holiday so my fun and enjoyment of the Christmas decorations were short lived. Nevertheless, MH and I had a great holiday season with family and friends and I was glad to be able to spend some time in the kitchen to do some baking.

MH and my Christmas breakfast cinnamon roll tradition was altered slightly by a lovely invitation to a Christmas morning brunch and a new recipe. Since MH's parent's decided to not visit for the holiday, MH's sister had us over for brunch and we enjoyed our cinnamon roll tradition together.  

I typically bake a modified version of my Mom's cinnamon roll recipe, but after coming across Lauren's Latest blog and her Cinnabon cinnamon rolls I couldn't resist giving them a try. I think this is going to be my new go to cinnamon roll recipe. They taste pretty darn close to the real deal!

On Christmas Eve we enjoyed a traditional prime rib dinner, and MH and I made roasted garlic butter roasted mushrooms, roasted cauliflower and carrots, and a sour cream apple pie. 

The pie was featured in Martha Stewart Living and I don't think I would recommend the recipe. Although the crumble and crust were delicious, the pie in whole missed the mark. There was something about the sour cream apple filling that just didn't seem right. 

Since we enjoyed all of the traditional dishes on Christmas Eve, we decided to have a non-traditional Christmas dinner and cooked up a delicious homemade mexican spread. 

We made beef tamales, chili colorado, garlic grilled chicken, carnitas, al pastor, spanish rice, black beans, roasted corn salad, vegetable lime salad, guacamole, salsa, and a pitcher of horchata. To compliment the meal, we also bought some corn and flour tortillas, chips, and Jarritos sodas from the neighborhood Mexican market.

To finish the meal I made the an Impossible Cake otherwise known as chocoflan. Making this cake is a serious science experiment. When you prepare the cake and slide it into the oven, the cake sits at the bottom of the pan with the layer of flan floating on top, and when you pull it out the layers are reversed!

The cake turned out well and I was pleasantly surprised how nicely flan and chocolate cake paired together. I hope you had a wonderful holiday filled with delicious treats too!

Los Angeles Natural History Museum

Despite the fact that the Los Angeles Natural History Museum is literally down the street from our house, not to mention easily accessible via the Expo line, it took us months before we finally made it there for a visit. 

It has been years since MH and I have been to the museum. The new dinosaur hall is really cool and the mammal halls are just as amazing as I remember them.

If you are interested in visiting, admission to the museum is free on select Tuesdays. Please refer to the official museum visitor information page: HERE

Haflinger Doggy Slippers

I came across these while I was doing some holiday shopping. Aren't they cute!

Hope everyone is ready for the holidays! I can't believe they are just around the corner.

A Few Sights In Shanghai

Following my assignment in South Korea, I had a back to back assignment in Shanghai. However, after vacationing in Japan, sightseeing in South Korea, and knowing that it was my second trip to Shanghai, my itch for adventure was subdued and I stayed relatively close to my hotel in the French Concession. 

French Concession

Yuyuan 

Hairy Crabs

My local colleagues were fantastic hosts and I enjoyed a fantastic range of authentic dishes in a variety of styles. Every meal was a new adventure and as a result, it turned out to be my favorite trip to China so far!

One Last Stop In Seoul

After our day of moderately successful sightseeing, I felt the need to see at least one more thing in Seoul before our departure. Luckily, Bongeusa, the head temple of the Seon Buddhism, was across the street from the mall that was connected to the hotel. 

Unfortunately, it was a grey and cloudy day with light drizzling, but I'm still that that we went. It was a good way for us to end our trip to South Korea. 

A Moderately Successful Day Of Sightseeing

MH and I came up with a great plan to visit the historic areas of Gyeongju. Little did we know, South Korea had other plans for us. When we arrived at the KTX train station at 9 AM, the train we wanted was full and the next available train to our destination was at 12:30 PM. 

Since we had some time to kill, we did some local sight seeing in Seoul and visited the Changdeokgung palace, a world heritage site as an "outstanding example of Far Eastern palace architecture and garden design." - UNESCO 

With a hour and a half left to spare, we went to the National Folk Museum of Korea which is located within the grounds of the Gyeonbokgung Palace.  The museum had a lot of great exhibits and nicely highlighted Korean history, lifestyles, and culture. 

We finally made it to Gyeongju by 2:30 PM and immediately jumped on the local bus to go to the Bulguksa temple. The temple is at the end of a hilly path and the slow moving crowds made hard to get there quickly. When we arrived at the temple, we took our photos and then high tailed it out of there. The sun was starting to set and we still wanted to visit the Seokguram Grotto.

According to the website, you can catch the bus from the Bulguksa temple to the Seokgurum Grotto. However, the bus runs on 30 minute intervals and we were cutting it close to the closing time. The information desk at the Bulguksa temple told us that the Seokgurum Grotto closed at 5:30 PM so we made the game time decision to follow the map and hike there ourselves. Long story short, we didn't make it. After huffing and puffing up the hill for 25 minutes and with the Seokgurum Grotto in sight, some tourists headed in the opposite direction kindly informed us at the Seokgurum Grotto closed at 5:00 PM. Fail. 

[WHAT SHOULD HAVE BEEN MY PHOTO OF THE SEOKGURUM GROTTO]

The trip home didn't make our defeat easy to swallow either. MH and I waited at the bus stop in the dark for over a hour and a bus never came. Worried that we were going to miss our train, we hailed a cab and jumped in, too bad the driver only spoke Korean and proceeded to drive like a mad man, going the opposite direction on one way streets, through narrow residential alleys, and a couple rice patty fields. If anything bad was going to happen, I was convinced it was going to happen right then and there. We later discovered that he decided to take the back roads to avoid the horrendous traffic on the highway and we arrived at the train station on time, safe, and sound. 

Seoul Lantern Festival

After a long week in the office, I was excited to hit the streets of Seoul and check out the Lantern Festival. 

"One of the capital's flagship events, the Seoul Lantern Festival is a visual feast of hundreds of thousands of lanterns hand-crafted by local and international artisans. This year, the lanterns will interpret the theme "Seoul's Roots, the Lifestyles of Our Ancestors" - and will highlight Seoul's 2000 year-old history and many traditions." - VisitSeoul.net

The variety of lanterns were really cool. However, after walking down the Cheonggyecheon stream for a few blocks I decided to call it a night. The festival attracted hoards of people and working through the crowds to see the different lantern displays wasn't pleasant. On top of that, the aromas from the fried street food carts ended up being more than my nose and stomach could handle so I decided that heading back to the hotel was the best idea before I started feeling too queasy. I'm totally weak sauce, I know. 

Kate Spade Giraffe Scarf

Don't let the beautiful sunny weekend weather fool you, Fall is finally here! Even though you don't really need a scarf in Southern California, how can you resist this one?!?

Cynical Tea Bags

These are too funny... if only they worked!

For more information, you can check them out at Firebox.com HERE. 

A Weekend In Zermatt With Ickity!

I have to admit that when I was asked to travel to Switzerland for two weeks by myself for work I wasn't too excited, but when I learned that Ickity could spend the weekend with me in Zermatt I couldn't wait for the trip to come!

Getting to Zermatt from Boudry was a little tricky. The GPS kept telling me to take the ferry and as far as I could tell there was no body of water between me and my destination. So I just went with it and learned that the ferry was actually a train that you loaded your car onto to travel through the mountain. Go figure. 

In the morning we enjoyed a nice breakfast in the hotel and then took the gondola to the Matterhorn Glacier Paradise. On the way up to the top we stopped to enjoy the views and snap a few pictures.

Zermatt

The Jungfraujoch Ice Palace it a bit more impressive than the Glacier Paradise. However, to be fair, the Glacier Palace was under construction in many areas so we definitely did not see it at it's best. 

Instead of taking the gondola all the way back into town, we decided to hike part of the way and check out the Gornerschlucht Gulch. According to the map, it was only a 15 minute hike, and I'm going to have to say the map was wrong because we found ourselves there a hour later and we weren't goofing around!

Gornerschlucht Gulch

The gulch was really cool though and climbing up and down the steep wooden ladders was definitely an experience. I slipped on one of the ladders at the beginning of the trail, accidentally jammed my finger in the railing, and it's still sore. I guess it's a sign I'm getting old. What a bust.

The quaint little car-less town is as touristy and commercialized as one could imagine but it still made for a great weekend get away. It was a fantastic weekend. Thanks for making it happen Ickity!