Granola Not So Bars

Every morning, MH has a Cliff bar for breakfast (sometimes two!). This week, instead of restocking on our Cliff bar cases, MH decided to make home-made granola bars.

We searched the net and found a recipe from Alton Brown and combined it with another recipe from the Flour cookbook by Joanne Chang to fit our taste. A lot of granola bar recipes include coconut as a main ingredient and dates as a binder and MH doesn't particularly care for either.

MH decided to use a variety of dried fruits (cherries, raisins, and cranberries) with lots of almonds. They tasted nothing like the processed granola bars you buy at the grocery store and were absolutely delicious! The only disappointing part of them was that they didn't turn out as bar like as we had hoped. Perhaps we needed the Tupperware SnackBar Maker, haha.

Boy oh boy, granola bars are not the healthiest snack for you! MH used half a jar of jam, 6 ounces of honey, and brown sugar, granted it did make approximately 14 bars. After knowing what we put into our granola bars, I cannot imagine how much sugar/sweetener is added to the mass manufactured granola bars. With that being said, I can't wait for MH to make the next batch. After the first day we had them, I couldn't wait for the next opportunity to have another.

Love Is In The Air

Happy Valentines Day!

May cupid's arrow pierce your heart.

Shout out to Ickity for the message-in-a-cookie cutters! I heart personalized cookie messages and hope you do too.

"In the cookies of life, your friends are the chocolate chips." - Unknown

T-100 Days

In 100 days MH and I are going to be married! Two will become one. Crazy pants.

Honey, Take Me To The Moon

After significant debate, MH and I finally decided on our honeymoon destination! To many of our family member's delight, we decided against Mexico, Egypt, and North Korea (j/k). We are going to... drum roll... Kenya and Tanzania for an East African Safari!!!

Photo Courtesy of Google Images and Abercrombie & Kent Travel

Our honeymoon itinerary rivals one of MH's action packed adventures. We will be on the hunt for Africa's Big 5 (lion, leopard, rhino, elephant, and cape buffalo) in: Lake Nakuru, Masai Mara, Serengeti, Ngorongoro, Lake Manyara, Tarangire, and Amboseli. Then we will spend a couple days relaxing at the beach in Zanzibar.

We also have a 22 hour layover in London on our way home! Fingers crossed we can fit in a few sites while we are there too!!!

Our itinerary is planned, our deposits are paid, and our flights are booked! Now, we just have to get married.

Officially Engaged

MH and I have been engaged for 5 months, our wedding is in a little over 3 months, and there is no turning back. We sent out our save the dates and now we have official photos commemorating our engagement!

@ Battery Chamberlin

MH and I met with Cindy Fong under the recommendation of Carolyn Wong and we fell in love with her personality and work. In contrast to the other wedding photographers that we met with, Cindy's photos, slide shows, and albums were all beautiful, and we felt she presented the most balanced photography package.

@ The Palace of Fine Arts

In late January, MH and I did our engagement session with Cindy in San Francisco. Cindy was great at putting our nerves to ease and was nothing short of wonderful work with. Here are a couple more of my favorites...

@ "Cupid's Span" by Claes Oldenburg and Coosje van Bruggen


@ Baker Beach

I absolutely love our photos and can't wait till our wedding!

Scoops Westside

A few years ago, MH and I discovered Scoops through Yelp and it quickly became my favorite ice cream shop in Los Angeles. Scoops isn't your standard ice cream shop, they do not carry vanilla, strawberry, or even chocolate. Every time you visit the shop you are bound to find new flavors that you've probably never had before e.g. chocolate lemon, espresso peanut butter, & cappuccino hazelnut. Some flavors are better than others, but I have always found a flavor (or two) that I liked.

My only complaint about Scoops is that it isn't particularly close to our house. Located by Los Angeles Community College at 712 N Heliotrope Dr, Los Angeles, CA 90029, going to Scoops isn't always a convenient trip. However, thanks to food blogger turned franchisee/entrepreneur Mattatouille aka Matthew Kang, my only Scoops complaint has been resolved. Scoops Westside is located at 3400 Overland Ave, Los Angeles, CA 90034 and is open for business!

Scoops Westside Store Front

Only two months into business, the store is still growing into it's space. There are minimal decorations inside and out, however don't let that deter you. The ice cream is still great and although prices are a notch higher than the original, I thought of it as a premium for it's convenience.

Ice Cream Case

I had the pandan coconut and pina colada while MH had the black sesame banana and all were delish! You can follow Scoops Westside on twitter to read about their current flavors and treats. If you have the chance to try it, please let me know what you think.

Let Them Eat Cake!

Since I would gladly trade any meal for dessert, cake tasting was one of my favorite wedding planning activities! After visiting a handful of bakeries in Los Angeles, the best was saved for last and we visited with Carolyn Wong Cakes to make our final wedding cake decisions.

Carolyn Wong Cakes is located in Oakland, California and specializes in custom cakes and desserts. Unlike most of the bakeries we visited in Los Angeles, MH and I liked too many of the flavors that Carolyn offered and had a hard time picking our favorite. Moreover, after briefly sharing our wedding plans and ideas with Carolyn, it was clear that she understood our vision for our wedding cake and assured us that she could create it based on her stunning portfolio. To give you an idea of her amazing talent, here are a few samples of her work.

We cannot wait to see her one of a kind masterpiece for our wedding!

Pasadena of Roses Post Parade Showcase of Floats

Happy New Year! I hope you rang in the new year with cheer!

This morning, we ventured out to Pasadena to get an up close view of the tournament of roses parade floats. After the parade, the floats are parked along Sierra Madre and Washington Boulevards. For a small fee ($10/person), you can look at the floats at your leisure and ask White Suiters any of your questions.

Bayer's Camelot Float

City of Beverly Hills Float

Seeing the floats in person makes you truly appreciate the creativity in the design of the floats. Here are a few of my favorites.

Sea Turtle with a Leaf Shell

Native American with a Garment Adorned with Kumquats, Blueberries, Lima Beans, and More

Cow and an Oatmeal Pig

Christmas Desserts

This holiday season, I was in the kitchen baking up a storm. Although spending so much time in the kitchen can be tiring, I love baking and creating sweet treats for family and friends. Here are a few of my creations this year!

Devil's Food Chocolate Cake for Pre-Christmas Eve Dinner

Vanilla Cake with White Chocolate Whipped Cream and Raspberries for Christmas Eve Dinner

Cinnamon Rolls for Christmas Day Breakfast

Unfortunately, I forgot to snap a photo of the tiramisu I made for my family's Christmas dinner and the cranberry tiramisu I made for MH's family Christmas dinner but I'm sure you can imagine what they looked like and if not, it's quite all right.

I need to work on my finishing techniques. Frosting is definitely not my forte. It's a good thing I can get my desserts to taste pretty good. Otherwise, I'd be in serious trouble!

Pre-Christmas Eve Dinner

MH cooked up an Italian feast for our co-family pre-Christmas Eve dinner! The menu included homemade pizzas, baked rigatoni with sausage, orecchiette with meat sauce, and meatballs.

To accommodate vegetarian diets, MH made a pesto sauce and marinara sauce for the pizza base and we prepared a variety of veggies for our topping bar. Cauliflower and broccoli raabe are surprisingly tasty pizza toppings!

Pizza Topping Bar

As you can see, we haven't quite mastered the art of throwing our pizza dough to get beautifully stretched round pizzas but what we can manage still works pretty well.

Homemade Pizzas

Next time, I think we'll par-bake the pizza dough to quicken the process and make it easier to slide the pizzas on and off of the pizza stone when there are loaded up with toppings. Live and learn!