Another Day And Another Year Older

Birthday dinners are one of my favorites. This year, I asked to have a sashimi and sushi dinner at home and my parents delivered big time.

My Dad carved up a variety of fish to make a sashimi platter.

My Mom made miso soup, California hand rolls...

& Futomaki, and picked up some Seaweed Salad.

For dessert, we had a spongecake with custard and blueberries.

Happy Birthday to Me! Thanks Dad & Mom! Cheers to another year of health, happiness, and fantastic meals with family and friends!!!

Spring Rolls for Summer

Ickity and LQ kindly accommodated my request for spring rolls and we had a spring roll extravaganza!

Home made spring rolls are a fair amount of work. You have to clean, cook, and cut all of your ingredients and only then are you ready for the assembly process.

Spring Roll Ingredients

Apparently purchasing pre-cooked, shelled, and de-veined shrimp is considered cheating, who knew? Sorry Ickity! I was just trying to expedite the process. I promise there will be no cheating next time.

My Second Spring Roll Unwrapped

I didn't realize that there was an art to assembling spring rolls until after I had made my first feeble attempt and then saw Ickity's spring rolls. Her spring rolls were fit for a magazine cover and mine were... quickly consumed.

My Second Spring Roll Ready to Eat

Thankfully, my tummy didn't seem to mind my amateur attempts because pretty or not, they were undoubtedly delish!

Chocolate Peanut Butter Cupcakes

Ever since I had peanut butter chocolate cake at MH's cousin's wedding I couldn't stop thinking about it! Then, RAK told me about these awesome treats she had and I couldn't help myself. I had to make them to fulfill my peanut butter desires.

Chocolate Peanut Butter Cupcakes with Whipped Cream

I changed the recipe by using box mix (sorry!) for the chocolate cake and made whipped cream instead of butter frosting.

Inside View

Unfortunately, MH was underwhelmed by them but I thought they were great. In retrospect, I should have anticipated MH's lackluster response since I was much more excited about the previous peanut butter chocolate cake than he was but oh well.

I would definitely make this again. However, a couple other peanut butter recipes have caught my eye so I might have to try those first. What do you think? (a) Peanut butter pudding, (b) peanut butter pie, (c) peanut butter cake with chocolate frosting, or (d) peanut butter cake filled with jelly.

Cabo Wabo

After months of looking forward to a trip with my girlfriends, my boss revoked all our of pre-approved vacation requests in the month of July due to accelerated deadlines for our company's pending sale. I understand why I can't go, but I am beyond disappointed. Sometimes life sucks and this is one of those times.

I'm supposed to be in Cabo San Lucas, Mexico enjoying an all-inclusive hotel with swim up bars and easy access to Mexico's beautiful sandy beaches. I'm supposed to be in this picture of El Arco, with my girlfriends, our big floppy hats, sun-kissed skin, smiling ear to ear.

Girls, have a drink, or two, or three for me. Hopefully I'll be there next year, where ever "there" may be.

B-A-N-A-N-A-S

A few weeks ago the Nana Queen's Pudding & Wings truck was parked across the street from my office and I have had banana pudding on the brain ever since.

Bakerella has a great post with instructions how to make it yourself.

Homemade Banana Pudding

The store was out of regular Nilla Wafers so MH bought Mini Nilla Wafers instead. Aren't they the cutest?!? You can't really see the pudding in the picture, but I promise it is down there beneath the stack of bananas and Mini Nilla Wafers. Yum!

A 4th Of July Weekend Wedding

MH and I attended a spectacular wedding at the Rengstorff House for MH's cousin. The Bride was radiant, the Groom was dashing, and nothing was more evident that evening than their love for each other.

After dinner, it was time for cake and I was delighted to discover there were three different flavors: peanut butter chocolate, mango, and coconut! Yes, I tried all three flavors. I couldn't resist. They were all delicious, but I thought the peanut butter chocolate cake came in first, the mango cake was a close second, and the coconut cake was third.

If you were still hungry, the Bride and Groom had a taco truck for their guests too! Unfortunately, since I was already filled to my ears with cake I had to pass on the tacos. MH said they were fantastic.

At the end of the evening there was a fabulous fireworks show and guests danced the rest of the night away.

It was a special night and definitely an event to remember. Congrats to the newlyweds!

I ♥ Macarons

I've jumped on the macaron band wagon and have become an adoring fan. I guess late is better than never. According to wikipedia.org, "Larousse Gastronomique cites the macaron as being created in 791 in a convent near Cormery. Some have traced its French debut back to the arrival of Catherine de' Medici's Italian pastry chefs whom she brought with her in 1533 upon marrying Henry II. In the 1830s macarons were served two-by-two with the addition of jams, liqueurs, and spices."

Last Christmas, my brother gave me I ♥ Macarons, by Hisako Ogita, and it launched my adoration for macarons. There are a variety of websites that have great macaron recipes, instructions, and images, but this book puts all of the basics in one place for you. The book introduces macarons at a beginner level and explains the baking process step-by-step. It also has helpful suggestions for various flavor combinations, gift wrapping, presentation, and left over egg yolk recipes.

A critical step in baking macarons is making the perfect batter. The goal is to make a batter that has a "magma-like" consistency, being careful not to over mix it. I'm not quite sure what magma looks like and haven't quite refined my eye for "magma-like" consistency, but this batter seemed to work well enough.

Chocolate Macaron Batter

I did some additional online macaron research, and discovered there are many ways you can skin a cat. Each baker has their own special trick to achieve consistent macaron success. Some used aged egg whites, rap the pans, dry the macaron batter, bake with double trays, baking with the oven propped open, etc. I think you just have to find what works best for you and your oven.

Drying My Macarons

My oven tends to run a little hot, so I choose to dry the macaron batter, bake them double trayed, and rotate them halfway through their baking time. I have found that my macaron results vary based on the consistency of my batter. A thicker batter tends to yield a better shape and macaron texture. While a thinner batter tends to yield flatter and less chewy macarons.

Chocolate Macarons with Dark Chocolate Mousse

The great thing about macarons is that in any case, perfectly shaped and baked or not, they are still delicious! I truly do ♥ Macarons.

Mangia Mangia!

MH and I consider pizza a treat. There is something about the ooey, gooey, goodness that makes our mouths salivate and our tummies rumble when we decide we're going to have pizza for dinner.

Sometimes when we want something homemade that is quick and easy, we make french bread pizzas. Cut a loaf of french bread in half, spread some tomato sauce, cover with toppings of your choice, bake in the oven for 10-15 minutes (till lightly browned) and voila! French bread pizza!

French Bread Pizza

Later in the week, MH and I used the tomato sauce we made for our pizzas with some pasta and made chicken parmesan and rigatoni. I love how tomato sauce can be so versatile.

Chicken Parmesan & Rigatoni

I think MH's cooking specialty is Italian cuisine. We'll have to post the next time he makes lasagna!

Sweets Beads

While MH and I were eating our Coolhaus ice cream sandwiches on the sidewalk, I noticed we were standing outside of Sweets Beads. We popped into the store and discovered strands and strands of beautiful beads, gems, and stones. I could easily spend a small fortune in there! As I walked around the store, my mind kept spinning around all of the beautiful jewelry to be had. Check out the newest addition to my collection modeled by our wooden giraffe.

If you are looking for a bead store in Los Angeles, I would recommend you check them out. Sweets Beads: 7763 1/2 Beverly Boulevard, Los Angeles, CA 90036.

Coolhaus!

This week Coolhaus partnered with the USA network to promote it's Emmy campaign. Coolhaus gave out free ice cream sandwiches and MH and I caught up with the truck this evening at Beverly & Fairfax to get our sweet treats. MH got a chocolate chip cookie mint chip ice cream sandwich and I got a snickerdoodle cookie cinnamon ice cream sandwich.

Coolhaus Ice Cream Sandwiches

The ice cream was better than the cookies (in both cases), but they were great ice cream sandwiches nonetheless. Coolhaas is better than Diddie Reese. Then again, you can buy 3 Diddie Reese ice cream sandwiches for the price of 1 Coolhaas ice cream sandwich. You can pick which one you would rather have.