crafty maya

Succulents in English Teacup with Decor

2011-08-21T21:49:00.000-07:00

At Nathan & Co. on Piedmont Ave., I saw these succulents planted in vintage teacups. I loved them, but thought I could make them myself, especially after seeing how much they sold for. So that's what I did. I made my own to give as gifts.

I went to the Alameda Point Antiques Faire and found two English bone china teacups. Once I found my teacups, I got the succulents and soil to work on my project.

I then made a gnome and a bird with Sculpey to give the succulent a friend. I loved this project so much that I'm looking forward to finding more teacups next month at the faire.

Eat Real Fest (Sunday)

2010-08-29T16:44:00.000-07:00

We went to the Eat Real Fest again. Today is the last day. So sad!

Our favorite was the Senor Sisig's Filipino pork tacos ($2.50).

Looks like they're running to be in the Food Network's second season of the Great Food Truck Race.
We wanted to try the bao at Chairman Bao, but the line was just too long.

We tried the Thai Bao ($4) at Le Truc instead. It was the least favorite of the day.

Simply Garlic - Garlic Noodles ($4), Chicken Apple & Chicken Mozzerella Egg Rolls ($3)

Fat Face - Strawberry Basil Lemonade popsicle, Yellow Watermelon Pineapple popsicle ($3)
Gather Restaurant & Prather Ranch - Prather Ranch Slider ($5), Small Roasted Corn Salad ($3)
Had a sour pickle for $1.

Straus Family Creamery - Caramel Toffee Crunch ($2)

Some booths were selling fresh food like these beets. The building at Jack London Square still had the Farmer's Market today.

Eat Real Fest Butchering Contest

2010-08-28T22:52:00.000-07:00

At the Eat Real Fest they had a butchering contest. Gigantic leg of beef into little pieces!

Look at the crowd it drew in!

Eat Real Fest (Saturday)

2010-08-28T21:45:00.001-07:00

We've been looking forward to the Eat Real Fest all year, and it's finally here! We went last year and just loved it. It's a lot bigger this year with more food vendors and demos. Having more food vendors seem to shorten the lines a lot. The longest line we stood in was for the mini lobster roll; probably about 10 min. Otherwise, the lines were about a 5 min. wait to none. We're planning to go again tomorrow!

Seoul on Wheels - Spicy Pork Korean Taco ($3)
Get Jerked! - Jerk Fish Tacos ($4)
Jim n Nick's BBQ - Smoked Pork Sausage with Pimento Cheese ($5)
Hapa SF - Lumpia Shanghai ($3)
Pizza Politana - Eat Real Pizza ($3)
Chaac-Mool - Al Pastor Taco ($3)
Sam's Chowder House - Mini Lobster Roll ($5)
Los Cilantros - Organic Roasted Corn ($3)
They also had farm animals like little chickens and goats.

Birdie Branch

2010-06-29T13:36:00.000-07:00

The office looked so bare, so I made a branch. Hubby helped me put it up.

It's just made out of cardboard, SF Chronicle, and Mod Podge. But it looked a little lonesome.

So I got some felt and made a little birdhouse for it.

One day, a bird came to take a look.

It must have told his friends about it because suddenly there were several other birdies that were fluttering and twittering around the branch. The office is such a lively place now. Hope we can still get work done in there.

Honey Cornbread Muffins

2009-07-09T15:45:00.000-07:00

After having cornbread muffins on the Fourth, I wanted to make them at home. I found a recipe by the Neelys of the Food Network. I hate their show (way too much PDA and corniness -- Oh! Corniness!! Haha! Get it? Cuz it's about CORNbread? Hmm...), but I LOVE their honey cornbread muffins. It came out perfectly! I used the mini cupcake/muffin mold instead of the cupcake mold that it asked for. So it ended up making 32 mini muffins. It didn't take 15 minutes to bake. It took about 9 to 10 minutes instead. It's so crispy and yummy that I've eaten six so far today and haven't had lunch! Just two cups of coffee!Aren't they cute? I don't know why my muffins puffed up like that though. Don't they look like mushrooms? I expect little elves or fairies to come out of them.

Hubby's Crafty Creation

2009-07-09T15:17:00.000-07:00

Hubby made his first Shrinky Dinks charm. I have to admit that it's pretty good. Don't you think? He used colored pencils and a thin Sharpie marker.

A few days ago I noticed that they have ink jet Shrinky Dinks. Maybe Hubby would prefer designing something on computer. :)

Fourth of July

2009-07-09T12:38:00.000-07:00

Hubby and I waited all year for the Fourth of July. We started off our day by hiking the Stream Trail at the Redwood Regional Park in Oakland. Then we made sure to stop by the ATM to get cash for the yummy BBQed meats on sticks. Last year, my parents came to visit on the Fourth and we spent our time at Jack London Square before dinner at Yoshi's. As we walked around, we all drooled over the BBQ vendors. We were so good. We didn't eat any of it. We waited for our sushi dinner instead. So this year, we were totally looking forward to having the BBQed meats on sticks. But when we got there, there was no BBQed meat booths! We figured that they had the vendors and fireworks there every year, but I guess not! You don't know how grouchy I was. I was extremely disappointed and already had a headache from getting too much fresh air during our hike.

Anyways, we ended up going to Everett and Jones. We were so pleased when the host seated us in front of a window. But a few minutes later, he asks us to move to a smaller table. Normally, it wouldn't have really bothered me, but man, it ticked me off this time, but I politely moved. Anyways when our platter of BBQ came, I felt better. It had beef brisket, beef ribs, chicken, and beef links with the spicy and tangy sauce poured on everything. The best was the brisket. And the sides were so good. We loved the cole slaw and the cornbread muffins. The potato salad was delicious, too.

But man! I still can't believe they didn't have the BBQ! ARG!!

Here are some photos of our hike. Very beautiful!

Burmese Food Baby

2009-07-03T20:49:00.000-07:00

I'm pregnant with a food baby!

After we checked out (and ended up spending money at) the new Berkeley Bowl West, we headed over to Alameda to go eat. We ended up at Burma Superstar. There's always a wait, but not today since we got there before the dinner crowd.

Mango Tango and Lychee Julep. Both very good, but we let it rest a bit to allow the ice to melt to cut the sweetness.Platha with Coconut Chicken Curry. Mmm!Garlic Noodles with Duck. Great texture on this thin noodle, and loved the crunch of the fried garlic pieces.Burmese Style Curry with Shrimp. Reminded us of Singapore Chili Crab, but with curry. It was good, but on the too salty side. Hubby wanted Tiger beer as he ate this. Had this dish with jasmine and coconut jasmine rice.Jackfruit and Banana Fried Rolls with Nutella (and coconut ice cream and mango sorbet)

More Shrinky Dinks

2009-06-28T22:27:00.000-07:00

Are you Shrinky Dinked out? I'm not!

I'm sad because the last two I made got ruined. I used the toaster oven today. But for some reason the toaster oven was too hot for it. I noticed that the parchment paper was turning brown and I even noticed some smoke. Yikes! So, I learned to stick with my regular oven.Here are the last two that got too hot in the toaster oven. See how they are warped and the ink are smeared?This is the back of the pink butterfly one. I put so much detail in it! All ruined!

Shrinky Dinks Addict

2009-06-28T00:39:00.000-07:00

Wee!! I made more Shrinky Dinks pendants. I don't know what I'll do with them yet... Wear them, use as wine class charms, trinkets for presents... I thought of making pendants that say, "Listen to your teacher" or just "Focus" to wear in class. There are times when I'm helping a student one-on-one and the kid would look over at my necklace and sometimes even reach over and touch it. Even my accessories will make them learn!! Hahahaha!! Anyways, I'm so addicted! I need to go buy gloves tomorrow so that I can experiment with Shrinky Dinks rings. I bought the Softies Kit after school ended so I have crafty things to do this summer, but I haven't touched it! It's all Shrinky Dinks until I get bored or it's time to get ready for the next school year. :(

Inspired by Hubby's friend's bee video. Our parakeet. Just a design.

Shrinky Dinks

2009-06-27T21:06:00.000-07:00

I bought a book on making Shrinky Dink jewelry today. It was so much fun! I always wanted Shrinky Dinks when I was a kid. I ended up making a little pendant. I made it 3D by drawing the cage on the shiny side, and the bird on a tree branch on the rough side. Looks cool, no?

Here's how it looked before getting shrunk.Here's after it shrank.

First Days of Summer Break!!

2009-06-20T00:55:00.000-07:00

My last day of school was Thursday, June 11th. To celebrate, we went to Katana-ya in SF. We went there for my birthday, too. Ha ha. I ordered the strawberry-milk shaved ice. I always eyed it when others ordered it. It was so yummy. When I went home last summer, my mom and I made shaved ice. I requested that we do that again when I go home this summer.

Katana-ya's shaved ice.Mom's shaved ice.
Ramen, sushi, and shaved ice made a comforting meal after hiking at the Marin Headlands in Sausalito and shopping in the city.
Isn't it beautiful? I just love it there.Neat kelp!This kelp I've seen before. I tried picking it up. It's darn heavy!!This is the beautiful scene we saw when we exited a tunnel to go to SF.

Sleepy Birds

2009-06-20T00:28:00.000-07:00

Last weekend Hubby and I went to the city of Walnut Creek to go window shopping at Broadway Plaza. There's a neat decor store that we like going to especially for the antique looking cages with real finches in them. The store's called Filthy Gorgeous. The only thing we've bought there are these really sweet blue birds that are salt and pepper shakers. We just use it to decorate our hallway shelves.

Anyway, one of the cages had a pair of canaries in them. I couldn't help taking photos of the canary resting in its bowl of seeds. So cute!
But look at this green cutie! It's our parakeet, Coqui, lying down on our sofa. Awww!!

Taste of Singapore

2009-06-20T00:05:00.000-07:00

Hi R! So, Hubby and I went to Kopitiam as you requested. Extremely friendly owners. The chef (we think) kept telling us to order the laksa when he noticed me pointing out the sign for it to Hubby. But we had ordered already and didn't want to add another dish. Everything was very good. I especially loved the roti prata. It was so crispy on the outside and chewy on the inside. The chicken rice tasted just like it did in Singapore. I was so happy to see that they put the cucumbers underneath the chicken. It put a big smile on my face as I chewed.

We picked up the copy of the menu to plan for another dinner there (soon, I hope). I heard the chef say that he'll be going back to Singapore for three weeks soon so maybe we'll go when he's back.

A coconut flavored sago dessert with caramel and strawberries.Braised Curry Pork. The curry and the cabbage in it was very good, but unfortunately the pork was tough.Chicken Rice. Mmmm....Roti Prata with curry dipping sauce.

Strawberry Cupcakes

2009-05-31T11:11:00.000-07:00

I had the urge to make strawberry cupcakes. Part of it is that it's a good way to procrastinate doing any school work. Heh heh! I used the recipe I found on Martha Stewart's website. I used Sprinkles' strawberry frosting recipe. I split the recipe in half because I didn't have enough powdered sugar, but it make the perfect amount. The fresh strawberry puree in the frosting made this lovely soft pink color with little red freckles of strawberry bits. It's sweet but you can taste the fresh strawberries.

Zuppa Toscana

2009-05-31T10:40:00.000-07:00

I love Olive Garden's Zuppa Toscana. My brother does, too. He would experiment with the copycat recipes once in awhile and he showed me how to make it a long time back now. I still make it anytime it's soup climate. I think I finally got it right this time.

Zuppa Toscana
Serves 2-3 people

Ingredients:
1 Tbsp. olive oil
1 clove garlic, minced
1/2 medium onion, sliced
2 sliced thick-cut bacon (pepper-rubbed), chopped
1/2 lb. spicy Italian sausage meat
2 qt. low sodium chicken stock
1 chicken stock cube (Maggi)
2 medium potatoes, cubed
2 large leaves of kale, chopped
1 cup heavy cream (optional)

Directions:
1. In a large soup pot, heat the olive oil on medium-high. Add the garlic and onion to sauté.
2. Add the bacon and stir around.
3. Add the sausage and break it up as you cook it.
4. Once it's cooked, add the chicken stock and the cube. Bring to a boil.
5. Add the potatoes, and set the temperature back to medium high to cook the potatoes.
6. Test the potatoes' doneness. When it's done, turn the heat off, and add the kale.
7. When you're ready to eat, you can add the cream as much as you like to your bowl of soup.

Children's Clothespin Dolls

2009-05-31T10:01:00.000-07:00

So here are the clothespin dolls my fifth-graders made. They were supposed to fashion it in the time of the US Westward Expansion. So miners, railroad workers, pioneers, frontiersmen, Native Americans, etc. I told them that they are to use any material they have at home because long ago, children made these because they didn't have money to buy dolls. So, my favorite is the one wrapped in snake skin that he found. He made a bow and arrow with toothpicks, bubblegum wrap, and hair rubberband. With all these random items, I knew exactly what he made. You can also see which students have support at home or the amount of effort or creativity they put in.

Here's the snakeskin Native American doll I like.

Crafty Reward

2009-05-24T21:19:00.000-07:00

Today, we went to The Paper Source and saw The Softies Kit. I so wanted it!! I keep thinking about. I ended up not buying it since I have so much end of the school year work to do... Like prepare for Open House, the Science Fair, report cards, class cards that go to their sixth-grade teachers, memory books, etc., etc., etc.... I can't procrastinate by doing crafty things. I can, but I shouldn't. So I told myself that I'll buy it as a reward when I finish the report cards. Ugh!

Orchids in the Bay

2009-05-24T21:01:00.000-07:00

Hi Mom! Are you reading this? When we went to Hawaii, you told me that it would be really hard to grow orchids in the Bay Area because of the climate. So when we were at that orchid store, I ended up buying a magnet of an orchid instead of a real one. Well, this photo below is proof that orchids CAN grow in the Bay Area.

But you're probably right... I would most likely kill it. :(

Gyudon

2009-05-24T20:31:00.000-07:00

My brother-in-law apparently loves and makes gyudon. So, Hubby asked if I had it before or know how to make it. It's weird, I don't think I ever had it. I think my mom makes butaniku no shogayaki (ginger pork) with rice. And if we eat thin-sliced beef, it's often made into beef teriyaki eaten with rice. When I looked into the recipe for gyudon, I noticed that the ingredients are similar to beef teriyaki, which I suspected, but the portions are not. I used Amy Kaneko's Let's Cook Japanese Food! again for it. The flavor was good; very subtle flavor. But the beef itself was tough. I've had bad luck buying sliced meat at this particular store before... So note to self: Buy sliced meat there only if you have to. Anyways... here's a photo of it with a side of spinach goma-ae.

Clothespin Doll Craft Day

2009-05-22T18:47:00.000-07:00

Today I had a Clothespin Doll Craft Day for about an hour after school. Only about 6 students showed but it went really well. For a crafty activity like this, it was best that I had a few kids stay anyway. They're due Wednesday, so I'll post more photos when I get more turned in.

Cravings

2009-05-22T18:29:00.000-07:00

I have been craving for my mom's version of Korean kalbi. So I called up Mom for the recipe, and of course, she only gave me the ingredients for the marinade. No portions. Everything's "to taste." So, I whipped it up "to taste" and everything went well. The side dish of eggplant is from a Korean cookbook. It was alright.

I love Hubby's mabo tofu. I requested it again. Yum!!

About Class Projects

2009-05-11T21:24:00.000-07:00

So I introduced the Pioneer Exhibit project to the fifth-graders today. I put the two dolls I made in a tupperware and they were so nosy. They were trying to peek through to see what was in there. They were so distracted by what was in the tupperware that I actually had to move it and hide it at my desk. When I finally showed them, they loved the whole idea of making an artifact exhibit and especially loved the doll part. The letter writing part as a historical person was a little more difficult when I got them started on it. I have one who already wrote up a draft for it though. When I got home today, I quickly made up an outline the kids can follow for the letter since they had difficulty with it.

I can't wait to see how the dolls turn out! I will post as soon as the kids turn them in.

My next creative project is for Father's Day. For Mother's Day, I had them write a diamante poem made into a card, and wood photo frames (from Ikea) decorated with silk flowers. I would love to post them but their faces are on there so I'm not going to. As for the Father's Day gift, I'm still figuring it out. I was thinking of getting those cork tiles from Michaels and cutting them up to make coasters. The kids can then paint them. Ikea used to sell round and square cork coasters, but not anymore. I have some still, but I've been using them for ourselves. I like painting on them for fun.

Earth Day Posters

2009-05-10T21:38:00.000-07:00

Here's a project that they have already completed. I had the fifth-graders create persuasive posters for Earth Day. I set up stations where they can read and take notes on info on the environment. Then, I had them use those info to make posters. The catch was to use things that they already have -- so reuse materials to make the poster. I also had them go up and critique each one and then vote on two of their favorites. So there was a first, second, and a tie for third place. The kids are so funny. I gave them a Tater-Ware spoon as an award. I put ribbons on them and they loved that they got biodegradable spoons. They try to smell and taste it to see if it's really potato or corn. Also as winners, I made their posters into stickers (which were really photos of their posters printed on shipping labels).

My example to the class. The class critiquing. First place winner. Second place winner. Or was this the second place winner? Third? I can't remember. But this one and the next one here are my personal favorites. Third place winner (tie).

Clothespin Dolls

2009-05-10T21:11:00.000-07:00

Hello! I wonder if anyone checks this blog once in awhile. Geez. It's been over an year! Anyways... I'm just going to dive into blogging again.

So, tomorrow, I plan to introduce their new Inquiry project to my fifth-graders. They have to imagine that they are living during the time of the US Westward Expansion in the late 1700s to the late 1800s. They are to write a friendly letter to someone as if they are a miner, farmer, slave, Native American, Chinese immigrant working on the Transcontinental Railroad, etc. Then, they are to make a doll dressed in that time period using a wooden clothespin. For Open House, they're going to display it like we have an artifact exhibit. Neat, huh? I think the kids will like it.

I made two examples for them. One is a pioneer woman, and the other is a slave. I need to give him props though.

Three Meals!

2008-04-06T12:24:00.000-07:00

On Friday we went to Bui Contemporary Vietnamese Restaurant in Berkeley. We saw it before and decided to try it. We ordered the fried calamari with alioli sauce for appetizer. It was good. It had a light panko crust and the calamari itself was cooked so perfectly. It was soft; not chewy. So the meal started out alright. Then our entrees came. Hubby ordered a hotpot of Chilean Sea Bass in carmelized sauce. It was so overly sweet. There were no other ingredients in there. No onions or anything. Just a few chunks of fish. And I ordered roasted eggplant with minced chicken sauce. Yup, it sounds like that dish I made, right? Yeah, I decided to order it to compare. It had the basil in it for color and taste. It was pretty tasty. On the salty side. And the eggplant had a nice roasted flavor but there was only one small eggplant in there. The portion was ridiculous. The rice we got was $1.50 a bowl, and the bowl was so tiny. It was a little bigger than a teacup. Maybe I exaggerate, but there was definitely not enough to eat with that flavorful entree I got. The total bill came out close to $60. It was so not worth it there.

So when we decided to eat out on Saturday, we made sure to pick a cheap but yummy place to make up for Friday's dinner. Hubby looked at the 2007 Bargain Bite that the SF Chronicle puts out every year and found a Chinese place in Oakland Chinatown called Shan Dong. It was a grungy place with red Chinese lanterns. What was a little shock for me was that we were greeted by a smile and taken to our table. And what I noticed was that the language I heard spoken there be the guests was mainly English. There a lot of young cool people like us of different backgrounds eating there. So, immediately I felt comfortable there. We ordered the 5 dishes for $31.50. There are about 35 dishes you can choose from. The one thing I was disappointed with that deal was that there were no noodle dishes there. We read that they make the noodles themselves. The photos below are what we ordered. Everything was really good. The deal even came with a bowl of soup. It was hot and sour soup, not just a cabbage soup, but a real soup! We decided that since all the dishes were so yummy, we'll come back to order their noodle dishes next time. This place will definitely be one of regular places to eat. We loved the fact that this meal lasted us for two more meals. We had the leftovers for lunch and dinner. So for $31.50 plus tax and tip, we got three good meals from it. We tipped a little more because they actually poured tea for us when they came to our table. Oh! And this place actually takes cards and delivers for free to our area! This place made up for Bui and then some.

Salt and Pepper Pork Chop
Dry Braised Green Beans
Shan Dong Chicken
Fish Fillet with Cream Corn
Broccoli with Beef

Spring Break Cooking

2008-04-05T19:33:00.000-07:00

So, I didn't do everything I wanted to during my break. I did do most of the laundry, tidied the office, and did the cooking. So here's what I ended up making: Grilled Salted Salmon Collar. My mom's recipe for kama on the grill.
Sunomono from Let's Cook Japanese Food! I added the wakame. I love the color of the cucumbers. They're so vibrantly green! They're the Japanese cucumbers I found at the Tokyo Fish Market in Berkeley.
Pork Tonkatsu and Tokyo Negi Katsu on Skewers from Harumi's Japanese Home Cooking. Having them on skewers is for presentation only. The negi smelled so good when it was frying, and it tasted just as good.
The ingredients for my mom's potato salad. I used those colorful potatoes from the Farmers' Market. Recognize the color of the cucumbers? Those are the Japanese cucumbers again. I'm so pleased with myself that I finally used cucumbers before they went bad.
Mom's Japanese-Style Potato Salad.
Japanese-Style Squid Salad from Harumi's Japanese Home Cooking. This dish was awful! The dressing was so salty! Even as I was making it, I thought, "Man. It's going to be really salty... Well, let's see..." The squid was good, but the dressing... Oh man. We ate the squid with the red butter lettuce we got from the Farmers' Market. We ate that with Nasu no Soboro Ankake (Eggplant with Gingery Chicken Sauce) from Let's Cook Japanese Food! This was an ugly dish but the flavor was good. It's a ground chicken sauce that goes on top of the eggplant. It's ugly because there's no other color to the chicken. It's just brown ground chicken. The next time I make this, I'm going to add green onion or Thai basil and water chestnut for texture. The flavor is light. I think I'll make a batch of this and freeze it in portions to have for my bentos for work.
The ingredients for Toriniku no Misoyaki (Chicken Grilled with Miso Glaze) from Let's Cook Japanese Food!
Toriniku no Misoyaki. Oops. Got a little burnt.
Cute little balls of chicken ready to be cooked for...
Toriniku Dango no Amasu An (Chicken Meatballs with Sweet Vinegar Glaze) from Let's Cook Japanese Food! This came out so good! I'll make this again. This recipe can be used to make tsukune. The ground chicken put on a stick and grilled like the izakaya places.

Maple

2008-04-05T19:15:00.000-07:00

Update on the maple tree. Look! The little shriveled up leaves opened up. It looks so lush now. Here's the little maple tree. It's funny, the leaves at the top of the tree are red, but the leaves closer to the bottom are more green-red. It may be because of how much the leaves are getting the sun on the balcony.

Oh, and here's how the big maple tree of the apartment complex looks now in the springtime.

Fog City Diner

2008-04-05T18:29:00.000-07:00

During Spring Break, we went to Fog City Diner in SF for my birthday dinner. We've been there once and I just loved their fried calamari. They're light and crispy and mixed in there are fried onions and jalapeno! Yum!! And it comes with a spicy and garlicky lime dipping sauce. Hubby ordered crabcakes for his appetizer. I didn't care for it. For our entrees we got Red Curry Mussel Stew and Chicken Schnitzel with broccolini and lemon caper sauce. The stew got too sweet as it cooled. And my schnitzel was edible but everything on my plate only tasted of butter. It's as if Paula Deen cooked it for me. So I wouldn't recommend it unless you're a butter lover like her. Oh... But that calamari... It makes me want to get a deep fryer. And I want to make that dipping sauce and put it on everything.

At home, Hubby presented me with a chocolate cupcake from Miette that he had secretly bought when we had gone to the Ferry Building earlier in the evening. It was very moist and perfectly sweet. I tasted the freshness of the vanilla frosting, but I didn't care for it and ended up scraping it off. We ate it with a petite bottle of Prosecco. It was our first time, and we enjoyed it very much.

Spring Break Projects

2008-03-24T22:47:00.000-07:00

It's Spring Break! I have planned for myself many projects during vacation. I want to paint little cute things on 5" x 7" canvases, cook meals using the grill, apply for teaching jobs, write letters and overdue packages to friends, and tidy up the apartment. I got the canvases on Saturday, and we also went to the Farmers' Market. The market had those plastic Easter eggs scattered about for the egg hunt for the kids. I thought that they were for decoration, but then later realized when a parent was helping her kid "find" the egg that it was the Easter egg hunt that my husband saw advertised. Anyways, we bought short ribs there. I've been wanting to try buying the meat there for a long time. I'm always disappointed by the beef I buy at the supermarket because when I bring them home, I find that there's a funky smelling, brownish-gray discoloring on other side of the meat. Good thing I don't really eat a lot of red meat. When we do, we now get them at the butcher at Whole Foods. We've had better luck with the meat there. I love that I can ask them to show it to me and have them re-cut it to our liking. I've even seen people ask to smell the fish or meat there. I'm too shy to do that. So, going back to the Farmers' Market... We also bought a red butter lettuce for $2. It was so pretty I had to get it. It's good, but it didn't have much of a thickness like the green variety. My parakeets enjoyed it, too. We also got oranges, and a bag of different colored potatoes.

I went grocery shopping today. Want to know what I've planned for this week's dinner menu? Well, today, I made Chicken with Soy and Balsamic Dressing on a bed of sauteed cabbage. It was so good. This recipe from Harumi Kurihara's Harumi's Japanese Home Cooking is definitely a keeper. Her Pari Pari-Style Chicken; not so much. I also plan to make her Japanese-style Squid Salad using the butter lettuce with Amy Kaneko's (of Let's Cook Japanese Food!) Eggplant with Gingery Chicken Sauce. For another night, I plan to make little bite-sized pork tonkatsu and Tokyo negi on skewers using Harumi's idea. I'll serve that with my mom's Japanese-style potato salad using those colorful potatoes. I wonder how it would look with those purple potatoes! And then another night, I'll use the grill to make Kaneko's Chicken Grilled with Miso Glaze and her Chicken Meatballs with Sweet Vinegar Glaze served with corn nibblets. For the chicken meatballs, I haven't decided if I should grill them on skewers and serve the sauce on the side, or to go ahead and pan-cook it with the glaze. It depends on how ambitious I'm feeling. The last dish I have planned is the salmon collar a la Mom. Last time I made this was on the stovetop grill. So I'm looking forward to making it on our little grill. And I'll serve that with sunomono. All Japanese food.

Happy projects for me! I'll keep you updated on what out of these things mentioned I would actually get done. :)

Yay! Grill Time!!

2008-03-24T22:38:00.000-07:00

We have all these cookbooks, but I couldn't make half the stuff in them because we didn't have a grill. Well, we have those indoor, stovetop grill, but have learned to hate it. It is hard to clean and grilling just stinks up an apartment for a week! So we finally got the little grill and FINALLY got it set up and working. We were waiting for the warm weather, right, Hubby? Hee hee. The first thing my husband made was steak. He just rubbed the Montreal grill seasoning on it, and then pounded it with his fist. It came out really good.

Balcony Plants

2008-03-24T22:26:00.001-07:00

Aren't these Jumpers so pretty?! They're so cute! Last year I tried to grow them from seeds, but I didn't bother this year since I've been so busy. I just went to Home Depot and went plant crazy. I took so long trying to figure out which container had the most variety of colors. The only thing that was growing was my husband's scrawny maple plant from Ikea. Well, actually I thought that it had just died from being overwatered or not watered enough, but lo and behold, it was alive!!! It has started growing its new red leaves. So, anyways, I also bought a pink flower, don't remember the name, and a purple bacopa... I think that's what it's called. They're both in a little hanging basket from Ikea. I also got a Maidenhair Fern to replace my Pachira plant. The Pachira died. It was my fault. I left it out in the balcony when it was way too cold for it. Well, I say it was payback for its lack of financial fortune it was supposed to give me.

Little Sweet Things

2008-03-24T21:59:00.000-07:00

Hubby brought home these cute little candies from work. And I just had to go check the store out. The traditional candies are from Fiona's Sweetshoppe in San Francisco. They're imported from the UK and Europe. It was neat because you get to taste them before you buy them. I tried something called a UFO and it was odd. It was shaped like a flying saucer and came in variety of pastel colors. When you put it in your mouth, it felt like a thin, stale wafer that's in a Kit Kat. It collapses as it gets soggy in your mouth and then weird, tart crumbly candy is in the center. Don't care to have it again but would give it someone to watch their expression on their face.

We also went to Schoggi. It's a Swiss chocolate store. It's right next to Beard Papa's and my husband has been waiting for it to check it out. We got two chocolates each. I got a coffee flavored one and a matcha flavored one. Hee hee.
And yesterday, for Easter, we got a little chocolate bunny from good ol' See's to smash and eat. Well, my plan was to get those big chocolate bunny with the blue candy eyes to smash and eat up, but I got cheap and didn't do that. Went for the little bunny. And didn't smash it. We just bit into it. I remember never ever finishing those chocolate bunnies when we were kids. I think my siblings and I would just eat the ears, and end up saving the rest of the fridge. And one day we realize that it's no longer there. Mom probably chucked it.

Zentini

2008-02-24T22:58:00.000-08:00

Hubby and I have been wanting to try Zen. A green tea liqueur. We first saw it at BevMo and having been checking to see if they have a small version of it instead to try it. When we go to bars, we've been asking if they have it so that we can try it. But when we met up with a friend when we were in SoCal, she had it for us. It was so funny. So we tried it. We tried it straight. Very sweet and tastes of matcha ice cream. We made the zentini that was on the bottle. It was very strong, as all martinis are. It was still sweet and yummy to drink, but I didn't really taste the tea flavor. I think I'm going to get the matcha powder and rim the glass with it so that it would be extra pretty and accentuate the tea flavor when you drink it. Beautiful green color. :) I think I'll put it in my cocktail recipes book since it was pretty good. Here's my cocktail recipe book. I scrapbooked it. Hee hee. I did this when I was not working. So, I just need to find the time to do it with this recipe.

Yummy Saturday

2008-02-24T22:30:00.000-08:00

I made Mochiko Chicken Wings yesterday. I got the recipe from a mochi cookbook from Hawaii. The flavor is so similar to the Sesame Chicken my mom makes. Only, sorry to say, this mochi chicken recipe is better. So here's the blurry photo of it.
Then, during the evening, we went to the city to have dinner at Schnitzelhaus for a friend's 30th birthday dinner. It was such a loud fun place. It was decorated with tons of antlers. I never had German food. I really wanted a sausage but ended up getting a schnitzel instead. Never had a schnitzel so I thought I should try it at an authentic place. It was so good. It was breaded so well. And I loved the lemon sauce it came with. Sounds like other guests who had the schnitzel wished they had gotten one with some kind of sauce. So, I'm glad I did. I was so happy that I had leftovers just so that I can have it home again. And I did. Still good!! Hubby had a pork leg. It was big. He said that he wouldn't get it again. Oh, and the restaurant has super large boot glasses for beer. I think a live human can wear it!

Vegas

2008-02-24T22:07:00.000-08:00

We went to Vegas this week. We took the Zagat guide for Vegas my hubby got from work. It was so wrong in recommendations. So our first day of eating sucked. We went to Cravings for buffet food. I was so disappointed that almost all the cakes were sugarless. Sugarless cake?! Fortunately, I found a chocolate mousse cake that was so yummy. We went to Isla Mexican Restaurant and Tequila Bar and had a really good meal on the second day. We were served with chips and salsa. Ohhh!!! It came with salsa fresca, chipotle salsa, and tomatillo salsa. Yum!! We ordered Mexican Cucumber cocktails. It was strong but had the sweet, refreshing taste of cucumber. It was garnished with a dried chili pepper. So the last sip of the drink was spicy. We had a steak pyramid and a BBQed shortrib. The steak was good but just needed some salt. The shortrib was a bit too sweet for my taste. We ended the meal with flan. The most perfect flan ever!!

On our last day in Vegas, we went to Carnegie Deli. Hubby had the humongo pastrami and I had the chicken noodle soup and the most delicious grilled cheese sandwich ever. It was crispy on the outside and oozed with gooey, salty American cheese.

Leno and Izakaya

2008-02-24T21:37:00.000-08:00

Oooh! I've tried several new places this month. We had Japanese food again with our friends in SF. This time, we had izakaya food. Oh, but on our way to meet up with our friends, we came across a crowd at Union Square. When we looked into the crowd, I saw a large chin and white hair. Yup. Jay Leno. There was a film camera and a mic involved. Maybe Jaywalking?? Anyways... The izakaya is called Sozai and it's run by a husband and wife team. The wife is Japanese and is the chef. The husband is the head waiter who helps pick out the sake to go with the dishes. All the sake are from True Sake in the Hayes Valley neighborhood. So, I guess he's the sake sommelier. The food was really good. They had a maguro tartar for only $3!! And they have edamame hummus that's so yummy. The "Sake Sommelier" said that one of the Whole Foods is carrying it now. At the end, we made sure to get the four desserts sampler. It came with lychee ice cream with matcha sauce, green tea tiramisu, green tea panna cotta, and a ginger chocolate cake. Mari, the chef, wasn't happy with the tiramisu, so she gave us full portions of everything else. I would probably go back there again. It was weird though because no one was there in the restaurant. But once we got seated several more guests trickled in. Must be a late night place.

Another Japanese place we checked out is a sushi place my sister found in Monterey Park on Garvey. It's called Sorafune. Another hubby and wife team. This time the wife is the waitress and the hubby is the chef. The place isn't even an year old but getting business. Very fresh there, and the wife is quite proud that the green tea is from Japan.

Missing Mom's Grilled Fish

2008-02-09T14:41:00.000-08:00

To make up for the yucky food we had last weekend, we decided and hoped to have better luck this weekend. I have been craving for grilled salted fish like my mom makes, so last night we went to Norikonoko in Berkeley again. We went there last year but haven't gone since. It's a Japanese place that serves homestyle cooking. So it serves robata style food, oden, and noodle soup dishes. No sushi chef there. It's pricey but really good. When you get there, you have to open a sliding door. Cool, huh? And when you go in, it's a little place and you feel like you walked into a Japanese family's home. It's cluttered with knickknacks all over the place. And the kitchen is not in the back somewhere, it's right there. You can even sit at the bar facing the kitchen. So, it's like a sushi bar, but without the sushi. It's a Japanese husband and wife team that does everything. When we got in, one of first thing I hear in Japanese from the husband chef is, "Have them sit there, that couple is about to leave," to the server. Right away, I remember that the husband is very tough on his servers. He is one of those strict Japanese guys. He's like Gordon Ramsay in Hell's Kitchen. He's always yelling at them. I had forgotten that about him, and the warm cozy feeling of eating food that my mom makes was then met with a feeling of awkwardness. Just hearing him constantly chiding the young servers made me feel bad for them. I felt like being there put them in that bad situation. But I was still excited to eat. My husband ordered the the maguro yamakake for appetizer and miso ramen with char-siu pork. The maguro was so good. The maguro was good - dark red color, firm, and fresh. I got the grilled salted sanma (pike fish) with daikon oroshi. I don't like daikon oroshi, but decided not to say anything about it when I ordered it. I was scared of the chef yelling at me for not eating his daikon or something. So for $15, the fish came with a bowl of rice, pickled veggies, miso soup, salad, orange slice, and two sidedishes. They were boiled spinach with ponzu sauce and nikujaga. I liked everything, but the nikujaga. I never liked nikujaga. Don't like it that it's sweet. The fish was so yummy. It was lightly salted and thankfully, it came with the daikon oroshi on the side. And a wedge of lemon! That's how I grew up eating it - with some lemon juice. It was very yummy until I noticed that they don't clean out the fish. So all fish meat that touched the innard part tasted bitter. I wasn't happy about that. My husband got a mini BBQ to use on our balcony, so I hope I can make this on my own when he has it all set up.Maguro Yamakake
Miso Ramen with Char-siu Pork

Untastiest Weekend

2008-02-09T13:40:00.000-08:00

Last weekend, we had very bad food experiences. We went to International Blvd. in East Oakland to try a Vietnamese place my husband found on Yelp.com. It's called Cam Huong Cafe. We wanted the BBQ pork sandwich and it got good reviews there. Well, out of 26 reviewers, it got four out of five stars. When we arrived, we were met with a coughing homeless guy in front of the entrance. When we got inside, it looked hopeful when we saw a line in there. Thought that it was weird that a lot of the prepared food like the spring rolls, bento-like plates, and desserts were on a shelf without any refrigeration though... Well, we got in line and noticed that there were tables that were not cleared off yet. And that really put off my husband. So we decided to take it home. My husband got the grilled pork sandwich, and I got the BBQ pork sandwich. I also ordered the Thai ice tea which tasted standard. But my husband got a sugar cane juice. It was so yummy! It was sweet but it had a citrus taste to it that made it quite refreshing. Our sandwiches were... blech! My pork was the red char-siu pork. I was surprised that it didn't really have the bold flavor. The jalapeno slice gave it the spiciness. The bread was good - it had the crispiness. Oh, and the pickled veggies didn't have its pickle flavor that I love so much! My husband's tasted a lot better, but not good enough. He said that it tastes better than Lee's Sandwiches. I disagreed. I would much rather have Lee's. Ever since I had a fresh one at Pho 89 in Richmond, I compare all banh mi to it. The sandwiches my husband gets from SF are also very good. Anyways, we will not be going back there again even though the sandwiches were super-duper cheap.

We also tried Boran Thai Restaurant in Berkeley. We didn't know what to eat, so we drove around until something caught our eye. I saw a cozy looking place as we drove by this place, so we went. It looked very similar to another Thai place we've tried before, but after looking at the menu, I realized that it was a different place. Anyways, that's not the point. When we sat down, we were given a basket of those fried fat chips thingies (is that what it is?) with a side of sweet dipping sauce. The place is definitely homey. I liked that atmosphere. So, we ordered a calamari appetizer, a BBQ pork dish, and a dish that sounded like the fried tofu and eggplant dish we had at Thai Basil in Fullerton. While we waited, we got a soup of just chicken broth with chopped cabbage in it. It was so simple and very yummy. So I was very excited to get my food. When we did... Oh my... How can anyone mess up on Thai cuisine?! All the flavors of Thai cuisine are yummy and so boldly flavorful. You're using the best flavors!! And all the dishes we got came out super sweet. We didn't finish eating everything. Our server looked was this grandpa looking guy who was so smiley and sweet. This was the only time I was ever glad that when the server came to check on us, that my mouth was full. He asked if everything was okay, and I just gave a polite nod with, "Mm-hmm." Later when he asked if we were done, we asked for boxes. We didn't have the heart to tell him that we didn't want to take the leftover home. We then walked over to Andronico's and got salt and vinegar potato chips to balance the sweet taste in my mouth. We then left the leftovers by a trashcan in front of Walgreens where I know I've seen homeless people hang out before. As soon as we got home, we checked it out on Yelp.com, of course. I don't know why people like it. *sigh*

Sunset Magazine Nacho

2008-01-23T21:50:00.000-08:00

My husband brought home a Sunset magazine from work. It had a recipe for nachos. I'm so weak when it comes to nachos or chips and salsa. We have nacho nights sometimes. They're fun. We usually get beer and sit at the coffee table in front of the TV. Well, I liked this recipe because it's different from the cheese, chili, guacamole, sour cream, etc. toppings on it. The meat sauce from the magazine used chile verde, Mexican chorizo, and minced steak. It's really supposed to be topped with black beans as well but I don't care for them so I didn't make it. I did top it with guacamole though. And I added chopped tomatoes on there to give it more color.

Oh, I made the lemongrass coconut soup like I said I would. I thought that it came out pretty good. Next time I will add more spiciness though. I didn't make the spicy noodle. A colleague from work lent me Anne of Green Gables and I just couldn't stop watching! It was so good! I love the speech Miss Stacy gives the class. If only teaching is as easy as taking the students out to look at a bird nest...

Thai Food!!

2008-01-20T21:27:00.000-08:00

I have been craving for Thai food again. On Thursday, I made pad thai using the Thai Kitchen brand. I never used this brand before until I got a Thai cookbook (called Simply Thai) and wanted to make green curry. I was going all over the place looking for green curry paste. I always passed by the Thai Kitchen brand because it just looked cheesy... You know... Not authentic. But because of my craving, I bought it and made the green curry with eggplant. That's how they make it at one of my favorite Thai places: Saladang in Pasadena. Anyways, it was so good! I made it again another time; and again tonight. It turned out that my sister makes them, too. But she said that she makes it with chicken and potatoes. And she cooks all the ingredients first and then mixes it with the curry. So I tried that today. It came out pretty good. The color... Not so much. I think cooking the eggplant ahead of time may have been a bad idea because the dark purple color kinda made the curry unpleasantly dark. I like serving the curry in the fondue set. It makes it more special.
So what was I talking about? Oh, the pad thai. It came out pretty good. I think next time I need to drain out the juice from the shrimp and chicken that I added to the noodle. It make the noodle kinda mushy. Also, I would squeeze some lime juice on it and some extra spiciness. The Thai Kitchen pad thai sauce just needed that punch in flavor. I wish I took a photo of it!

Well, tomorrow, I'm going to use the leftover rice noodles and make Spicy Thai Noodles and the Chicken Coconut Soup from the Simply Thai cookbook. I'm hoping that by looking at the ingredients for the Spicy Thai Noodle that it is the recipe for pad kee mao. It's my husband's favorite Thai noodle dish. The best place that makes this is Thai Basil in Fullerton. It's our other favorite Thai place. We compare all Thai places in the Bay Area to this one. Each time we're in town, we try to go. It's always good there. The last time we went was for New Year's Eve. We tried a new dish with eggplant, tofu, and basil. It was so good!! We also had their coconut soup. It was very yummy. We have been really into the coconut soup. I love the lemongrass flavor in it. So that's why I'm going to make it tomorrow.

Thai Basil's Eggplant & Tofu with Basil - I can't remember what it's called. So yummy!!

The Pad Kee Mao with pork.

The Lemongrass Coconut Soup.

Long Time, No Blog

2008-01-20T20:31:00.000-08:00

Oh my... I haven't blogged since September?! That's so bad. I've been taking photos of this and that to put up on here, but just never really had the time or got too lazy to. I even started a little crafty project for fun. I started making Christmas ornaments out of felt. Never finished them, but that's okay. I'll put them up on here another day.

I went back home for Thanksgiving. We had our usual family dinner with the traditional turkey and the fixings, plus the Japanese dishes. We always invite our family friends. It was weird because one of us "kids" actually had their first child. Anyways, I don't have any photos of the food we had that night. We always get too busy. But we were able to take a photo of our Black Friday Sushi and Tempura Dinner we had. It was my sister and her husband's idea. It was a lot of work. We were doing all we can until our mom came home to do her magic and get the dinner prepared and completed. It was a scary night for us. Not because of the amount of food, but because our dad got lymph-node infection during the middle of dinner. It looked like his left cheek fell down to his neck. He's fine. Just needed to take antibiotics.

Then, for Christmas, I actually went gambling at Pechanga with my parents. It was fun and weird at the same time. I was sitting in the back seat of the car with my parents driving. I felt like such a little girl. Anyways, we had our Christmas family dinner on the 29th because that's when everyone was able to get together. We did a tempura dinner that night. We all decided that tempura dinners aren't such a good idea because it got cold. It's better to do warm dishes with tempura as one of them. Not ALL tempura. We even tried tempura-ing (my sister's new word) avocados. Someone recommended it. It wasn't that great. We also bacon-wrapped some asparagus and tempura-ed those, too. Those were better. But I'm too lazy to do that again. Plus, the asparagus were expensive. Then, we did our Secret Santa thing. It was so much fun. My Secret Santa turned out to be my dad. He got me the water boiling thermos thingy. I still don't know what they're called. I love it. Makes me drink more tea instead of soda. It's healthier.

Ladybug Gift Decor

2007-09-09T13:21:00.000-07:00

I got my friend a little gift for her "BIG THREE-OH". The store clerk put a ribbon on the box, but it just looked so plain. So I added a ladybug sitting on a leaf to the ribbon. I made it out of felt and added the line and spots on it with black embroidery floss. I'm quite proud of the antennae I added to the head. That's also made of the embroidery floss.

Quail Eggs

2007-09-09T13:01:00.000-07:00

I went home during the Labor Day weekend and guess what I had? Yup, quail eggs. My family has an aviary with parakeets and four little Button Quails that my brother got my sister for her birthday. One male quail with three females. My sister named them Hugh Heffner, Holly, Bridget, and Kendra. Cute, huh? So, when I went home, I checked on Hugh and his girls. Hee hee! I love saying that. I took a photo of two of the girls. Anyways, we don't know which ones are laying the eggs, but they've been laying these really cute speckled brown and blue eggs. My mom boiled them and I had a few. Just tasted like regular eggs.

Stirred Egg Soup

2007-08-17T21:41:00.000-07:00

I made another Amy Kaneko recipe. The Stirred Egg Soup. I only skimmed the recipe and made a mistake of over-stirring the egg in the bowl and then stirring again in the pot. I knew I did it wrong immediately because it came out in clumps. The egg should have come in long thin strands. My mom makes a similar soup and she makes it in those long thin strands. Ooops. Well, the soup was still yummy. It's just chicken stock, salt to taste, a touch of sake, a lightly stirred egg, and chopped green onion. You can add sesame oil to it as well, but since I'm not to eat anything greasy or spicy this whole week, I didn't add it.

I'm doing okay since the food poisoning except when I eat. My body has rejected everything I've eaten so far. But I'm so hungry and need nutrition in me that I thought I would try this soup.

I fear that it was not successful... I can feel the pain and gurgling in my stomach... Wahh!! :(

Pain in My Tummy

2007-08-15T22:52:00.000-07:00

That's me in the emergency room.

These little succulent morsels are probably what got me there. But we will never know for sure.

This is what I taught my hubby to make for me today. Okayu (rice porridge usually served when you're sick) with umeboshi (pickled plum).

Let's see... Without going into the embarassing details... On Monday starting after lunch and up through bedtime, my stomach wasn't feeling that great. Earlier that evening, we decided to go to Luka's Taproom and Lounge. We've been there a few times for only cockails. Our friends told us that you can get one dollar oysters every Monday there. So we decided to go and try their entrees as well. The entrees weren't good. But the oysters were so good. We ordered a half dozen more, in fact. Our only complaint was that they were not all consistent sizes. There were puny ones that should have only been charged fifty cents!

Then, the next day on Tuesday, my husband and I headed out to the city to check out the cute stores on Hayes St. in Hayes Valley and then go to the Giant Robot store in Haight-Ashbury. When we were shopping on Hayes St., I spotted Patxi's Chicago Pizza. I was so excited because my friend told me about how it's supposed to be the rival of East Bay's Zachary's Chicago Pizza. So, I wanted to try it. We went there around 3pm and ordered a slice each of the spinach and mushroom deep-dish pizza. It was a lot less gloppier than Zachary's. And I was able to taste the flavor of the spinach. Overall, it was good, but I think I still crave for Zachary's. I don't know what it is. I think I'll have to go to Zachary's and try again. Hee hee!

Oops. Better stop with the food commentary. So anyhow, maybe around 5pm when we were in Haight-Ashbury, I had to go to the bathroom. Didn't feel too urgent, but I had this pain in my stomach like the squeezing pain you get when you have the stomach flu. So, right then, I thought that something's not right with me. As we finally headed home, we made a stop at the San Francisco Shopping Center to use the restroom before hopping onto BART to head back to Oakland. The squeezing pain kept occuring once in awhile, but it was nothing compared to the urgency of needing a restroom once I was waiting for BART. I was so miserable on BART and then the walk back to the apartment was excruciating! Once I got to the apartment, I ran for the bathroom. After that was all over, that squeezing pain just became worse. It was sharp and would stab me several times and then stop for awhile and start again. It was worse than the pain from the flu. It was so bad that I felt the saliva coming to the sides of my mouth so that I felt like vomiting. So then, Hubby took me to the emergency room.

I was tested and asked questions by the nurses and the doctor. Basically he found nothing wrong with me. He said that it's one of those things where we will never know what it is that caused this. He said that it may be food poisoning even though Hubby ate everything I did. He said that it's normal to have a thousand people eating the same contaminated food and half the people would be fine and the other half get sick. So, I got 2 cold bags of fluids put in me since I was so dehydrated. He said that that would relieve the pain in my stomach since it was so empty. I feel a lot better today. I still get the squeezing pain once in awhile, but it's a lot tolerable. The funny thing is, my mother-in-law called yesterday before we headed out to the city to ask if we were feeling fine; she knew we had eaten oysters. She had heard that oysters were recalled in Washington so she was concerned for us. At the time she called, I was fine. Oh! Another funny thing is that while we were at ER, there was a 3.2 earthquake! The epicenter was right there in Oakland.

I emailed the friends who recommended Luka's Monday $1 Oysters and Patxi's pizza the photos of me in ER. Hee hee. Giving them a hard time for their recommendations. *wink wink* So, I think out of all the things we've had, it had to be the oysters. I don't think I'll have $1 oysters anymore. I'll only eat it if maybe I fish it out of clear waters myself during peak safe and yummy season. And no dolphin better have pee-ed on it!

My hubby just told me a funny thing. He said that he was worried for me because if anything were to happen to me last night, I wouldn't have finished "Harry Potter". Hahahahaha! Yes, he is so right!

Ici Ice Cream

2007-08-11T20:51:00.000-07:00

I've passed by this ice cream store several times on my way to a pet bird store on the same street. It's very cute and I always check to see what flavors they have. It's by a Chez Panisse protege named Mary Canales. They have sorbets and ice creams with adventurous flavors like habenero or raspberry lemon and verbena. She uses fresh, in season ingredients so it's constantly changing. It's a bit pricey but the sign says that the ice cream is made there on site. There's always a customer in there getting ice cream. This time, my husband and I couldn't ignore it. We saw many people walking around with ice cream in their hands and the line was going out the door. And it was such a beautiful warm day - perfect ice cream weather. So, when we passed by it a second time, we stood in line. Maybe it's because I will finally start working soon that splurging on fancy handmade ice cream didn't seem like a bad idea. I only later remembered to take a photo of the ice cream. That's why the ice cream is half eaten. I got green tea flavor. Not an original flavor but my test was to see if she gets it right. It didn't have the typical matcha color but the flavor and texture was spot on. Yum!! And I got mine on a cone. The cone had a surprise for me. There was chocolate at the end of it. Hubby got candied lime and orange ice cream. I had a taste and it was too tart for me, but he liked it. I'll definitely try other flavors again especially since it didn't give me a stomachache. *Wink* Check out the review and photos of the beautiful ice cream creations on Yelp.com. Just type in "Ici" and it's located in Berkeley.

Gyoza, Potstickers, Dumplings, Whatever... They're just yummy!

2007-08-11T14:26:00.000-07:00

Hello. I'm back. The gyoza came out good. Normally, I don't make it for lunch. I had the stuffing all ready for dinner but when I opened my package of gyoza skin, it had gone bad. Oops! So I bought a pack yesterday and made it just earlier today for lunch. I always like to make extra and freeze it so I can have it as my lunch or dinner or those days when you have unexpectant friends over and want to entertain them. I learned how to make gyoza from my mom. So the basic ingredients and procedure is my mom's way, but I like to experiment with the recipe sometimes especially when I find gyoza recipes in other places. For today's gyoza recipe, approximately...

1/2 head of small cabbage, chopped fine to medium
1/2 yellow onion, chopped
4 stalks of green onion, chopped
1 tsp. butter
1/2 pound ground pork, the fatty kind from the Asian market
1/2 pound ground chicken
1 Tbsp. grated ginger
1 Tbsp. grated garlic
1 egg
1 Tbsp. oyster sauce
1 Tbsp. sesame oil
1 Tbsp. soy sauce
1 Tbsp. chili-garlic sauce
salt and pepper
2 packets of Japanese brand gyoza wrappers

In a wok or frying pan, I sautee the onion in butter and then add the cabbage and green onion. I then add the salt and pepper to taste. I move it away from the hot burner and let it cool down. While it's cooling, I mix together the ground meats, ginger, garlic, egg, oyster sauce, sesame oil, soy sauce and the chili-garlic sauce. You can add more salt or pepper if you want. But with the soy sauce and the oyster sauce, it should be enough. And even if the gyoza filling is not as flavorful as you would have liked, it's alright because you normally dip the dumpling in a sauce anyways. After you make your meaty filling, add the cooled veggie filling to it. If you still really care about how the filling tastes, just boil some water and drop a ball of the filling in it to cook, then eat it to see if you like it.

Now, filling the wrapper... Get a little bowl with some water in it. Using a regular spoon, put a dollop of the filling in the middle of the wrapper. Then, with your finger, wet your finger with that bowl of water and run it all the way along the edge of the wrapper. Now, fold up one half of the wrapper so that it looks like a taco. Pleat one end of the .... Forget it... Just get the plastic gyoza wrapping tool. It's too difficult to explain. Note: I use the Japanese brand gyoza wrappers because that's what I grew up with and the thick wrappers I find to be too doughy for my taste. It's funny, when I was little, I hated the gyoza wrapper, I would peel it off and dip the filling in the sauce and eat it.

Now, the cooking part. I butter the frying pan on high heat, put as many as I can on there, and listen for the sizzle. The bottom should brown a little bit. I then pour about a third cup of water and bring the heat to medium. I then cover it and listen for the sizzle sound again. That's when a lot of the water has cooked off. I take off the cover and put it back on high heat and watch the rest of the water cook off and the gyoza bottom to brown a bit more and become crunchy. Mmmm!!! And when you serve the gyoza, it should be crunchy side up so that it stays that way.

For the sauce, I just mix together grated ginger, lemon juice (or rice vinegar), ichimi tongarashi, ra-yu (chili oil), sesame oil, and soy sauce. All to taste. My mom normally has the ingredients for the sauce out on the dinner table and we each make our own sauce in our dipping bowl the way we like it. A cultural difference I noticed... My family usually has salad or sesame flavored spinach on the side with a bowl of rice... But my husband, being Chinese American, is getting used to the Japanese way of having a bowl of rice with those dumplings. I guess my husband eats those dumplings by itself.

So that's how I make them. Yum!

Mmm... Pork Chops... Arglll...

2007-08-11T10:59:00.000-07:00

Last weekend, we had a dinner and board game night at our place. I made this whole Italian dinner. I made chicken parmesan that came out juicy as usual, fiery lemon angel hair pasta, balsamic glazed chicken wings, basil pesto and sundried tomato pesto for smearing onto bread, salad with salami and red onion, and zuppa toscana with toasted garlic naan seasoned with dried thyme, butter, olive oil, and sea salt. Most of these recipes are from Food Network's Giada De Laurentiis. The chicken parm is not quite Giada's anymore. It's a smorgasbord of different recipes. Oh! And the zuppa toscana is from my brother. He found it online where they have recipe copies of restaurant dishes. So this is the one you can find at Olive Garden. It's super easy. And it was one of people's favorites at the dinner and game night. ... I can't believe I didn't take a photo!! ARG!!

But I did take a photo of the pork chops I made two nights ago. It finally came out just right! It's my mom's dishes that is one my favorites. All you do is get thin-cut or regular cut pork chops with the bone in it. You sprinkle both sides of of the chop with garlic salt. Then broil it until the top side looks cooked. I don't know for how long. I just turn on the oven light and look in. Then I flip it over and drizzle a little sake (1 tsp.) and soy sauce (1 Tbsp.) on each chop. I broil it a little more until it's not pink anymore and then add chopped green onions on each one and another drizzle of soy sauce. Cook a bit more until it looks fully cooked. Then eat.

Well, I'm off to make gyoza for lunch. I'll post that soon.

Unsuccessful Recipe!

2007-08-10T17:38:00.000-07:00

Blech!!! Blech! Blech! Blech! It was too good to be true! After three successful new recipes I had a bad one. I made "Ebi to Broccoli 'Gratin'" by Amy Kaneko from her cookbook called, "Let's Cook Japanese Food!" It's a wonderful cookbook. She's an American woman married to a Japanese man whose family taught her how to cook Japanese food. Once she moved back to the US, she tried recreating those favorite recipes using ingredients and cooking tools that you can find here. Since Japanese cuisines are influenced by other countries, there are plenty of "chuka ryori" and "yoshoku" dishes in the book. It's usually difficult to find those recipes except in Japanese language-only recipe books. Her recipes are pretty good. One night, we did an "izakaya" night. From her book, I made agedashi dofu (fried soft tofu), spinach in sesame dressing, steamed clams in sake and butter broth, and karaage chicken. I also made some gyoza, too. I took a photo of it, but I can't find it. It was fun, we had sake, too. Well, going back to the gratin... My husband and I have always had problems when we try to make creamy cheesey sauces for macaroni. The gratin was easy and all the flavors were basically good, it's just that the cheese sauce didn't come out very good. It was all curdly and super greasy. But I have to say it was the closest I've ever been to getting it right, though. So I think if someone who knew how to do it right would actually show me, I can do it.

Successful New Recipes!

2007-07-26T22:13:00.000-07:00

Here's what I made so far this week since Saturday. All new recipes. And so far really successful!

Panna Cotta with Strawberry Compote - The Panna Cotta is my sister's recipe from Italy. The compote was improvised. I just chopped up some strawberries and simmered them with sugar, orange juice, and amaretto. It's garnished with a mint spring from my balcony "garden". The dessert was a hit when I took it to a game night/potluck. I still had some heavy cream left so I made some more but this time topped it with espresso that was simmered with amaretto. Mmmm!Grilled Salted Salmon Collar - This is one of favorite dish that my mom makes. I've been craving it for so long. I finally bought it myself and salted it and grilled it on the stovetop grill. The kitchen still smells fishy. :( But it tasted like home. It was so moist and salty. We were so thirsty afterwards though.Mentaiko Spaghetti - Mmmm!! I made this today for dinner. I found the recipe on recipezaar.com. I followed the recipe exactly and it was so easy! The only thing I did at the end was add about 3 tablespoons of the pasta water to the finished product. The noodles needed to loosen up. I garnished it with nori and a dollop of fresh karashi mentaiko that I had left over. I was annoyed when my hubby brought up his finished plate to the kitchen sink. He had left the sauce with the fish roe still on the plate. I told him to eat it because fish roe is a bit pricey. He scraped it up and ate it.

BBQ Dinner on the Balcony

2007-07-26T21:46:00.000-07:00

Well, we don't have a BBQ grill so my husband grilled some pork ribs on those stovetop grill thingy that are really annoying to clean. He randomly mixed a rub and marinated it overnight and then grilled it with store-bought sauce. It was so yummy. And I made the side dishes using recipes from the July issue of Bon Appetite magazine. Yup, it's the one with Next Food Network Star's Rory's BBQ recipe featured on the cover. The coleslaw was just okay. And then I made the herby potato salad. That, I would make again. But of course, I modified those recipes since I'm so picky about my veggies and herbs.

Weird Kitchen!

2007-07-25T16:26:00.000-07:00

July is a weird month for my kitchen! I got a carton of eggs and so far, each egg that I break has double yolk in it! Today I had medamayaki gohan (fried egg on rice). I was very excited to eat my double yolk egg. It tasted like regular eggs. I looked it up and I guess it happens when a young hen just begins to lay eggs. Then, after awhile, she lays the normal single yolk eggs. The other weird thing that happened was on Monday. When I was frying some zucchini for dinner, one of it smiled at me when I flipped it over! But my husband got the last smile because he ate it! And then, this morning, when I opened a fresh can of Illy espresso, the grounds exploded onto my face! I thought the grounds would blind or caffeinate my eyes! But I'm alright. The weird thing is that it never exploded like that at my husband when he opened a fresh can. It just released the gas. Weird, right?! I think so!!

Cards and Gift Tags

2007-07-25T12:09:00.000-07:00

Whoa! I haven't blogged for a long time. I finally started working on my job applications so I got a little busy. Well, here are some things I worked on. Although, I think I worked on these in May... Yup. I did. Those are Mother's Day cards for my mom and my mother-in-law. I got the idea and patterns for those cards from a Japanese felt book. And the tin cans are filled with tea from Lupicia and chocolate from Scharffen Berger as gifts for my girlfriends. The gift tags are another idea taken from that book.

Smiley Kidnapper

2007-06-11T22:48:00.000-07:00

My friend and her husband got me The Cute Book by Aranzi Aronzo for my birthday. It turns out that we both really liked the Kidnapper in there. It's weird that it's a kidnapper, but it's so awkwardly cute! I love how he has a white bag to collect the child. So, we finally got together on Friday to make him. It was difficult trying to trace the pattern of the body onto the black felt with the white pencil. Especially up the armpits and between the legs. So when I had to cut the shapes out, I kind of had to guess how far to cut up on those parts. And of course, sewing those parts got a little tricky. He's just so skinny! I didn't bother trying to fill his arms or legs with the fluffy stuff. I don't think you're supposed to anyways.

Once I finished the Kidnapper, my husband and I had fun positioning him out in the balcony to take different creepy or sneaky shots of him. Unfortunately, I didn't make his straight mouth long enough and he looks like he's smiling. My friend who has never sewn except to put on a button seemed to struggle with it, but was really persistent. She still hasn't finished it yet. I can't wait to see her finished product. I think we ended up with such a tricky one to do for a first time crafter.

Bird Swing

2007-06-04T11:14:00.000-07:00

Yesterday, all I worked on was this bird swing for my parakeet that I don't quite have it. I would never try to make this again. Well, the swing part was easy, just get a stick and drill holes on either end of it and shape a wire through it to make the swing. Simple. The embellishments I would not do again. Not only was it painful on my fingers to sew those little flowers on it, but the parakeet will poop on it.

Now, why did I even make it then? Because I got this new Japanese zakka book called Kirippanashi de Dekirumono by Kiyuna Hareru that had a really cute decorating idea. It was strips of ribbon hung from a doorway and on each strip, there were flowers made of fabric sewn on it. I wanted to make it for my place but there just isn't a place for it. So, I decided to make it for my parakeet so that they can climb it and nibble on it.

The only change I made from the book design was that I sewed two different patterned fabrics together with a felt sandwiched in between them. That way, it was easier for me to handstitch in a way that the bird won't be shredding the fabric to pieces and possibly eating it.

I'm really happy with the outcome. It's colorful and the handstitching gives it a really charming, child-like feel to it.

Welcome to Crafty Maya

2007-05-29T00:49:00.000-07:00

Hello. Here's my blog! Welcome!

Well, I have a few reasons I decided to attempt this blog thing. My friends have a food blog and they've suggested I also post photos and write about restaurants and recipes I've tried. Another reason is that all my friends and family are scattered about the state (and some in others). And for them to know what's up with me, they can read my blog. Hmm... Although this blog will primarily be about food, little simple crafty projects I make, and the herbs and wildflowers I'm trying to grow from my apartment balcony. I may occasionally write about my pet fishies and parakeet(s?), too.

As for the name of my blog site... My shiba dog's name is Maya. She's sneaky smart. All she thinks about is food. So, see, I'll write about food. And I added "crafty" because it can mean "sneaky" (my dog) and that something is made by hand. So, I'll write about my craft projects. And the gardening in the balcony... Um... My dog hangs out in the backyard. See. So that's my explanation.

Enjoy!