The Counter

Tommy actually got home at a decent time tonight so we went out for a casual dinner. We decided to go to The Counter on Lake. We first experienced the Counter up north a few years ago and were super excited that one opened up here in Pasadena. Overall, it's a good burger joint. The customer service at this location however is really great. They're very accommodating with little ones and are just darn right nice. I made a funky burger tonight...blue cheese, buffalo sauce, and bacon. I love their deep fried pickle chips though. I could eat those all night. And their 50/50 of fries and onion rings are yum.

Carrot Cake Cupcakes

Tomorrow we are celebrating the January/February birthdays with the family. I have decided to make carrot cake cupcakes. (They're my brother-in-law's other favorite dessert.) I love this recipe because you can do it all in one bowl and you can mix it all by hand. No stand mixer or hand beater necessary. Such an easy clean up. This is yet another fail proof recipe if you're making a cake and NOT cupcakes. It's moist and delicious and it has the perfect balance of cinnamon-not too much but just enough to get the essence of it without being overpowered by it. It's classically topped off with a cream cheese frosting. I thought I could just convert them into cupcakes and it was an EPIC FAILURE. They spread up and and out and it was just a huge mound of cake. I managed to flip them out-almost in one huge mass and cut away the edges, but it just wasn't pretty. So I decided to make the actual cake instead and give out the cupcakes as snacks. I used this recipe, and you can just put it all in a 9x13 dish, but I like to do it in 2 round 9 inch pans with frosting in between, on top and all around.

Ingredients

* 4 eggs
* 1 1/4 cups vegetable oil
* 1 3/4 cups white sugar
* 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
* 2 cups all-purpose flour
* 2 teaspoons baking soda
* 2 teaspoons baking powder
* 1/2 teaspoon salt
* 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
* 3 cups grated carrots
* 1 cup chopped pecans or walnuts-preferably toasted first

Cream Cheese Frosting
* 2 sticks of butter, softened
* 2 packages of cream cheese, softened (16 oz.)
* 3 cups confectioners' sugar
* 1 teaspoon vanilla extract


Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Butter and flour a 9x13 inch pan or 2-9 inch round pans.
2. In a large bowl, beat together eggs, oil, white sugar and 2 teaspoons vanilla. Mix together all of the dry ingredients (flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt and cinnamon.) Stir in carrots. Fold in nuts. Pour into prepared pan.
3. Bake in the preheated oven for 40 to 50 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean. Let it cool in the pan(s) for 10 minutes, then turn out onto a wire rack and cool completely.
4. For the frosting: In a medium bowl, combine butter, cream cheese, confectioners' sugar and 1 teaspoon vanilla. Beat until the mixture is smooth and creamy. Frost the cooled cake.

It's Taco Time at the Wongs

We remember so well what it was like at the beginning with a newborn. It was not easy. Tommy and I ordered take out every day for the first 3 months...cooking was out of the question. I didn't have the energy for it. Alan and Lu make it look easy, and they probably don't need me to bring dinner over to them, but I do it anyways! Tonight was taco night. I went to the local Mexican market and bought carne asada and marinated chicken. We packed the typical condiments, lettuce, tomatoes, avocado, cilantro, cheese, sour cream, onions, and avocado salsa (from Trader joe's-I've never seen it before, but it was good!) For dessert I baked Ina Garten's pear clafouti from her Barefoot in Paris cookbook. She called for Bartlett pears, but I used bosc pears which was a fine alternate. Clafouti is like a custard filled with fruit. Usually cherry, but you could virtually do any fall/winter fruit. It's a very simple recipe and it's easy to assemble. I love the way the pears peek out of the top of the batter. I was only able to capture the clafouti before I baked it. We were pressed for time and before I knew it, the clafouti was baked and we were out the door. The Wong's had vanilla ice cream and it was just what we needed to go with the clafouti.
At the Wong's I was able to hold Boppy (10 weeks) as she slept in my arms. I could just kiss her all night. It's the sweetest thing.

Key Lime Pie

It was my brother-in-law's birthday and one of his favorite desserts is key lime pie so I decided to make it for him. This is a wonderful recipe and it's so easy to make. I cheated a little bit and bought a pre-made crust and I didn't use key limes. I have a lime tree in my backyard so I used those instead. My limes look yellow...and they are yellow, but they're not lemons, they're limes. Really! I'm almost afraid to list the recipe because it shows how easy it was to make. This recipe is from allrecipes.com and it received tons of rave reviews. It's no wonder-it's a fail proof recipe and when you use a star tip to pipe out the whipped cream, it's worthy of a few aahs.

Key Lime Pie
Ingredients

* 1 (9 inch) prepared graham cracker crust
* 3 cups sweetened condensed milk (about 2 cans)
* 1/2 cup sour cream
* 3/4 cup key lime juice (about 25-35 limes depending on their size)
* 1 tablespoon grated lime zest

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).
2. In a medium bowl, combine condensed milk, sour cream, lime juice, and lime rind.
Mix well and pour into graham cracker crust.
3. Bake in preheated oven for 5 to 8 minutes, until tiny pinhole bubbles burst on the surface of pie. DO NOT BROWN! Chill pie thoroughly before serving. Garnish with lime slices and whipped cream if desired.

Gerlach's Grill

It's a totally unassuming place. It's next to a liquor store and it's so small that you can barely even see it. There's a tiny window and a tiny little patio-you wouldn't know what it was unless you knew what it was. It was written up in the LA Times several years ago and we've been loyal customers ever since. They serve a different array of food, from kebabs, to Mexican food, but it's their fresh seafood that draws a crowd. We usually order their calamari, maybe a falafel here and there, but always the fish tacos. Their fish is super fresh. The taco plate is served with 3 tacos, hummus, greek salad and one pita bread. Delicious!

The Alcove

The Alcove is a great little place on Hillhurst Ave. in Los Angeles- a street that's studded with little eateries. We went to celebrate my brother in law's birthday. We've been to the Alcove a few times and I am reminded of why we go back again and again. It's a charming place with a great outdoor seating area-surrounded by trees and greenery. Here, you order at the counter and then you sit wherever you please. The counter is filled with baked goods like red velvet cupcakes, blue velvet cupcakes, bread puddings, cookies and cakes galore. I couldn't resist but to order the bread pudding-one of my all time favorite desserts. They described it as a french toast with chocolate chips, but a thousand times better. I was sold. They serve it warm with two dollops of whipped cream on the side. I thought it was a little orange zest heavy, but I'm just not a huge fan of orange in my chocolate goods. I know-they go hand in hand, but it's just not for me. The chilaquiles was good, but their beans looked grey. We enjoyed the beautiful weather, the good food and watching the cousins play together.
Happy birthday, part 1, Chris!

Orecchiette

Orecchiete means ears in Italian. They're pasta shells that look like little ears and I love them. I found this version at Mario's Deli in Glendale. They're "grandi" so they're a little bigger than the usual. I used them for a marinara pasta and they're perfect when they're cooked al dente. We topped it with Italian parsley and shaved parmesean cheese, a garlic baguette on the side and a glass of red wine (my first glass in months!) What a great way to end the day.

Just another Wednesday

Keagan gets his cast off today! We both took the day off so we could be with him when they do it...yes, we're first time parents. But then we ended up dropping him off at my moms because she wanted to take him to Keiro so Tommy and I ended up having the morning to ourselves. Just us. We forget what that's like. We thought it would be a perfect opportunity to have breakfast together. We went to Marston's in Pasadena and didn't have to wait-it is a Wednesday morning after all. We ordered the famous cornflake crusted french toast, the 3 cheese omelette made with swiss, gorgonzola and cheddar and a side bacon. I was actually fairly impressed this time around with the french toast. Last time it was super dry and there wasn't one part of it that was "french toast." This time it was crunchy on the outside and somewhat moist on the inside. The omelette was okay. Nothing exceptional, nothing you couldn't make at home. We just relaxed over our hot cups of coffee and breakfast. What a nice way to start the day.

Target Days at JANM

Japanese American National Museum. Once a month at JANM in Little Tokyo, Los Angeles, they have what's called a Target day. Admission is free and for each admission, Target matches it. It's a great way to spend a Saturday afternoon. They have arts and crafts and demonstrations and you get to see the museum for free. You can spend the afternoon having lunch in Little Tokyo, head over to the museum and then finish your day with a bowl of frozen yogurt, a cream puff from Beard Papas or a Japanese pancake filled with sweet red bean (imagawayaki). You can find out information on the JANM wesbite!

Cousins

Aki + Keagan. This is what we always imagined it to be. My sister's boy and mine, growing up together...hopefully as best friends. It's been so neat to watch their interactions. Keagan grabs Aki and Aki moves away and this repeats 800 times. However, Aki doesn't move far enough away for Keagan to not be able to reach him. Aki just smiles and turns away. When Aki's around, Keagan won't nap-he is so fascinated with him. Here they were at the park-the first of many, I hope. My favorite boys...together.

Mission 261

We've been friends for how long? A little less than 20 years? It's crazy. We've said all the cliche things like "we'll grow old together" or "We'll watch our kids grow up together" but before we knew it, it was all actually happening. Our group is slowly growing with the addition of husbands and now babies. It's crazy to think back to our first time meeting one another to where we are now.

This was our Christmas Exchange that we hold annually. This year it was at Mission 261 in San Gabriel. We ordered tons of food and after our traditional group photo we left in the pouring rain.

Lu just had her baby about a month before this photo was taken...can you believe that? She looks amazing!

Kennedy (17 months) Keagan (6 months) The rest of us (Getting old)

Baby Leg Warmers-

I'm addicted to baby leg warmers. They're so adorable. I can't help but order a few...or ten. This is my newest collection for Keagan. It came in handy to cover up his cast. So many designs, so many styles. Which to choose? I ordered them from Green Lil Piggies in Riverside, California. They're such a great little company and their customer service is amazing. The only down side is that they're like socks and I'm already missing one. I've been searching for days, but can't seem to find it. Where the heck did it go?

Linnea

I just held her in my arms for a few minutes and she gracefully drifted off to lala land. I remember those days...a bit hazy, but I remember them. As Keagan skirted around on the floor, Linnea fell sound asleep in her pack n play. It was such a sweet sight. It's a joy to watch your dear friends join you on this venture of parenthood. L and A are such great parents already. Our kids are literally going to grow up together and I couldn't be happier. I loved being able to spend time and eat as we talk about our kids. Who would've thought that we'd be doing this 20 or so years ago?

coconut M and Ms

If you're a coconut fan-you must try these! They are so good. My girlfriend Em introduced them to me and they are yumm-O!

Chicken enchiladas

I was going to make tacos tonight, but when my sister said she was making enchiladas, I decided to make some too!

Again, no recipe...not that you need one. I just threw this one together because I had some stuff on hand.

Ingredients:
corn tortillas
rotisserie chicken shredded
cheese (any kind is good-jack, cheddar...I used jack)
green sauce (I used one from the market. It's a chile verde sauce)

Set oven to 350 degrees.
warm a tortilla in a pan for a few seconds. Then dip it in the verde sauce. place chicken and cheese inside the tortilla and roll it up. Place in a 9x13 baking dish. Repeat until the whole dish is filled. Once every roll is made, top with remaining verde sauce and top with cheese. Bake in the oven for 2o minutes until cheese is melted.

I served it with shredded lettuce, tomatoes and topped it with sour cream which I mixed with lemon and a little salt.

onion rings

mmmmmmmmmmm...onion rings. I had a million onions left so I decided to make some. I was inspired by my friend MW who just made some and sent me a photo of hers. I am a die hard fan of Ina Garten. I just love her. I'll post desserts and things I make from her cookbooks. She is the best. Her recipes are spot on and fail proof. These onion rings are from her cookbook. They're a bit time consuming, but worth the effort. She likes her onions sliced thick, I like mine thin. They can be prepared either way. I love the idea of cornmeal mixed into the batter-it gives it a really crusty edge and great texture. I'm just going to summarize her directions for the sake of time.


Cornmeal-fried onion rings
2 large spanish onions (or whatever you have)
2 cups buttermilk
kosher salt, pepper to taste
1 1/2 all purpose flour
1/4 cup yellow cornmeal
1 qt. vegetable oil

1. slice onions and separate into rings
2. combine buttermilk, 1-1/2 tsp salt and 1 tsp pepper in a bowl.
3. Add onions to the buttermilk mix and let stand for 15 minutes
4. In a separate bowl, combine flour, cornmeal, 1 tsp salt and 1/2 tsp pepper.

Heat oil to 350 degrees. take onions out of buttermilk mix and dredge in flour mixture and fry.

Place them on paper towels to collect extra oil. keep warm in the oven (set to 200 degrees for up to 30 minutes)

Enjoy!

okonomiyaki

This is one of my most favorite Japanese dishes. They're Japanese pancakes and it's like a poor man's dish, but aren't those the best? There isn't really one right way of making it. I actually don't even follow any recipe really. All you really need is cabbage-and cabbage is something I almost always try to have in my fridge because there's so much you can do with it. I like my okonomiyaki with bacon-cuz that's just another staple in my fridge. People will probably tell you this isn't authentic, but even my cousin in Japan makes his just with cabbage and bacon so...to each his own.

Basic okonomiyaki batter:
2 c. all purpose flour
1 1/4 cup dashi
4 eggs
cabbage
bacon
bonito flakes
kewpie mayonnaise
okonomiyaki sauce


Mix the flour, dashi and eggs together in a bowl. Add shredded cabbage and coat the shredded cabbage thoroughly. Lightly oil a pan. Add the cabbage mixture and shape it into a pancake shape. Make sure the okonomiyaki is cooked thoroughly or else it will have that raw flour taste-yuck. Before you flip it, add strips of raw bacon onto one side and then flip it over.

Top it with bonito flakes, mayo, and okonomiyaki sauce. Yum!

Mama Vuong

My husband always ooh and aahs at his mom's cooking. And I can't blame him. She's amazing. I won't even bother replicating her dishes. There's just no point. We went over for dinner the other day and she made Vietnamese eggrolls, a Vietnamese salad and chicken porridge and it was so good. I will never able to make eggrolls or porridge like her, but the salad is easy enough!

Ingredients for the salad:
shredded cabbage
shredded lettuce
shredded carrots
shredded red onions
shredded chicken
cilantro

dressing:
nguc mam (Vietnamese fish sauce)
sesame oil
a little sugar
a squeeze of lemon

toss together and top with dried onions. Delicious.

Pink Lemonade Cupcakes

I made 3 cupcakes this weekend. The first was a lemongrass cupcake, but the flavor of lemongrass didn't come through. The milk is steeped with lemongrass, but the flavor is so subtle that you can't taste it as you're eating it-you kind of get a hint of it after you've taken that first bite and even then you're not so sure what the flavor is. Overall-it gets a score of a 0. So I moved on to the pink lemonade cupcake. I've been wanting to make this one for a while and I'm glad I finally did. These cupcakes are beautiful to look at. The pink color is absolutely adorable. The texture of the cupcake was perfect, but the flavor was just okay. I think the artificial flavor of the pink lemonade concentrate was what made it taste a little strange. I don't think I'll be making this cupcake over again.

The Oinkster

I had the day off for MLK's birthday and it was the best day off I've had in a while. My brother and I started the day off with a trip to Starbucks. That's just what we do when my brother's home from school. Then for lunch we all headed out to the Oinkster for lunch. There's something about the Oinkster that I love. The idea of slow fast food is genius. I had the BBQ pulled pork sandwich and I must say I was a little disappointed. It was good, but a bit salty and the flavor was just okay. I should've gotten the oinkster pastrami. Their Ube shake was delicious and I'm not even big on ube. Keagan got his first taste of pastrami thanks to Uncle Chris. His facial expression was priceless, but he kept pulling Uncle's arm for more.

A Hectic Start to the New Year

My husband and Keagan took a fall down the stairs yesterday. Tommy slipped on his pajama pants and took a fall. He decided to take Keagan to the ER with my mom just to make sure he was okay. After the x-rays, we were assured that Keagan was fine and had no broken parts. Phew! But later he wasn't putting any weight on his left leg at home so we were a little concerned-as anyone would be. We received a phone call today saying that they found a hairline fracture on his femur! So we rushed home from work and headed to the orthopedic department and they decided to put on a full leg cast. Keagan cried as they put it on, but once we picked him up he was happy go lucky again. It's the smallest cast I've ever seen. It's almost kind of cute. So sad....but so cute. 2 weeks with this cast. Poor little guy!

cocoa nibs

What are they? They're the shell of the cocoa bean. These are roasted and broken into little bits and they are delicious. My little sister bought me 2 bags of them from the well known chocolate shop in Seattle called Theo. The bag itself is beautiful. I've made a few things with these tiny bits of goodness. I was inspired by my favorite blogger Orangette. I made her cocoa nib sables and they were decent. They were actually quite disgusting fresh out of the oven. I know-fresh baked cookies-Gross? Yes. My husband didn't even like them and he likes anything with sugar. Definitely better when they sat out for a bit. She said so herself in her blog that they were better the next day and in this case, it was very true. Here's her recipe. They were good cookies, but not my favorite. It's a nice butter shortbread type of cookies, rolled into a log and refrigerated overnight. The speckles of cocoa nibs are nice though. They're pure cocoa flavor without any of the sugar.

Whole Wheat Sables with Cocoa Nibs (from Orangette.blogspot.com)

2 cups (9 oz.) whole wheat pastry flour, OR 1 cup (4.5 oz.) all-purpose flour plus 1 scant cup (4 oz.) whole wheat flour
14 Tbsp. (1 ¾ sticks) unsalted butter, softened
½ cup (3 ½ oz.) sugar
¼ tsp. salt
1 tsp. vanilla extract
1/3 cup (about 1 ¼ oz.) roasted cacao nibs

If using the two flours, combine them in a bowl, and mix with a whisk or fork.

In a medium bowl, with a large spoon or an electric mixer, beat the butter with the sugar, salt, and vanilla until smooth and creamy but not fluffy, about 1 minute (with the mixer). Scrape down the sides of the bowl with a spatula, and add the nibs. Beat briefly to incorporate. Add the flour, and mix until just incorporated. Scrap the dough into a mass and, if necessary, knead it a little with your hands to make sure that the flour is completely incorporated. Form the dough into a 12-by-2-inch log. Wrap and refrigerate for at least 2 hours, or overnight.

Set racks in the upper and lower thirds of the oven, and preheat the oven to 350°F. Line 2 cookie sheets with parchment paper.

Use a sharp knife to cut the cold dough log into ¼-inch-thick slices. Place the cookies at least 1 ½ inches apart on the prepared sheet pans.

Bake for 12 to 14 minutes, or until the cookies are light golden brown at the edges, rotating the pans from top to bottom and front to back halfway through the baking time. Cool the cookies for a minute on the pans, then transfer them (with or without their parchment) to a rack to cool completely. Repeat with remaining dough.

These cookies are good on the first day, but they’re best with a little age, after at least a day or two. Store in an airtight container at room temperature for up to a month.

Yield: about 48 cookies

New Years Day

In Japanese we say Akemashite omedetou!

I headed over to my mom's at 8:00 to have our traditional new years breakfast and watch the rose parade.

Breakfast was beautiful. From the sweet black beans to pickled radishes, sashimi, ozouni (mochi soup), kimpira gobo (burdock root), fish cakes, and dried fish, my mom spent much of the past days creating each dish. Our names were written on our chopstick holders.

The festivities at my grandmother's house began at 1:00 and we usually have about 20 people come. The food is outrageous. Traditional Japanese food. Not only is the food delicious, but the way it is presented is something else. Each piece is strategically placed. We spent the afternoon/evening eating and chatting and spending time with each other, while watching the football game.

Hopefully this is but a glimpse of what the new year has in store for our family.

Happy New Year Everyone!

New Years Eve

It's hard to believe this year is over. It really came up fast.

I've been stressing about tonight because of the little one. What if he won't sleep? What if he wakes up? The stresses that go along with sleep training! We decided to brave it and just bring him everywhere with us. I'm glad we did.

In the morning we made mochi (Japanese rice cakes) at my moms. It's hot and fresh out of the mochi machine and we shape them into a ball-like shape. There is nothing like fresh mochi. I can't quite explain it, but it is warm and chewy and delicious. I could eat 10 in one sitting if I could. We stole a piece here and there, dipped them in different things like butter or a sweet soysauce concoction or even with a sweet radish and soy sauce dip.

My mom was busy in the kitchen preparing for the new year-TONS of traditional food being made, which one day I'll have to learn how to make.

The rest of our day:
We spent the first part of our evening visiting the Toshimas. They got to meet Keagan for the first time. It's been a meeting long overdue! It was brief, but we got to see the girls and Reiko and Scott too so it was nice!

We headed over to my grandmother's house for ramen and hung out for a bit. At the end of the year it is tradition to have toshi koshi soba. Long noodles representing long life, but we kind of cheat and have ramen. I ended up having 2 servings. What a fatty!

Then it was off to the Lees for our annual New Years Eve celebration. As we get older, our parties aren't as crazy as they once were and I think I like it that way. We now have kids running around and lots of mommy talk going on. It's nice having lots of mommy friends. Keagan slept the entire time as we rang in the new year over a bottle or two or three of bubbly.

Happy New Year everyone! I hope for a year filled with new adventures and time spent with loved ones!