Pizookie Makes The World Go Round

Wednesday, April 28, 2010


I had a looong day yesterday. On Monday afternoon, we noticed our software had many UI objects leaking. I was nominated to investigate so I spent the better part of Tuesday working on this. The final leak nearly drove me crazy trying to figure it out. By the time I did, it was 7:30 and I was STARVING. Too tired and grumpy to cook, we decided to pig out at BJ's. A casear salad, buffalo wings, several beers, and a large pizza later, we found ourselves in front of a pizookie: two vanilla ice cream scoops on a big melty chocolate chip cookie. Life was good again.

In other news, I've been playing with the free actions from Pioneer Woman's website. Love them! Never used actions before in Photoshop but I'm totally sold. Check out some before and after shots of old pictures I've been twiddling with.

Before:


After (love the dreamy faded look):


Before:


After (love the color balance):


Before:


After (love the seventies look):


There are many great actions to combine at will. You can always change the opacity of the layers for more or less effect.

I've also been eyeballing the Nikon D90 as a major upgrade to my little Canon Powershot SX100. A coworker was kind enough to lend me his D40 to play with (he's since upgraded to D90). Can't wait to take lots of pics this weekend!

Recap

Sunday, April 25, 2010

Friday: Went to dinner at Alchemy (South Park) with Badge's bandmate and his fiance. Good but not quite as good as it's cousins up north (Sea Rocket or Linkery).

Saturday: Yoga'd, went to Bread & Cie for lunch, bought new bedding and comforter at Bed Bath & Beyond (allergy friendly with dust mite protection), eye balled fancy slr cameras and tvs at Best Buy, went to dinner and poker night at friends' house.

Sunday: Yoga'd, went to Home Depot for garden supplies, grocery shopped at Henry's, gardened, cooked, general relaxation.

In the garden, I set up some trellis (got both wood and metal) that I bought from Home Depot. They were much needed to support the star of jasmine shrubs and the vining plants my mom gave us.



The peas are doing quite well in the garden bed.


Other seedlings are growing their second set of leaves.


My mom brought us a fig tree last weekend. Over twenty years ago, she found a little seedling and didn't know what it was. After diligent nursing, it became a fig tree! Now it's mine. I hope it does well on my watch.


For dinner, I made some pasta with mushrooms and peas in a cream sauce. Here are the players.




Paired with a mache salad and white wine. Pretty tasty. Never had mache before but our friends were telling us about it on Sat so I thought I'd give it a try. Nice buttery baby green. Yum.


Good night.


Chocolate Chip Cookies: Archnemesis of Diets

Thursday, April 22, 2010


Oh man.

These cookies are to die for.

The recipe calls for browning the butter to develop a toffee flavor. Genius! The aroma was heavenly. It's best not to use a dark nonstick pan so you can see the color of the butter as it develops. The recipe also calls for resting the sugar and butter after they are mixed together so the sugar has time to dissolve. Double genius! The resulting cookie was crisp on the outside and chewy on the inside. With a cool glass of soy milk, nothing could be better.

Enjoy!

Perfect Chocolate Chip Cookies
Courtesy of CooksIllustrated.com

1 3/4 cups unbleached all-purpose flour (8 3/4 ounces)
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
14 tablespoons unsalted butter (1 3/4 sticks)
1/2 cup granulated sugar (3 1/2 ounces)
3/4 cups packed dark brown sugar (5 1/4 ounces)
1 teaspoon table salt
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 large egg
1 large egg yolk
1 1/4 cups semisweet chocolate chips or chunks
3/4 cup chopped pecan or walnuts, toasted (optional)

1. Adjust oven rack to middle position and heat oven to 375 degrees. Line 2 large (18- by 12-inch) baking sheets with parchment paper. Whisk flour and baking soda together in medium bowl; set aside.

2. Heat 10 tablespoons butter in 10-inch skillet over medium-high heat until melted, about 2 minutes. Continue cooking, swirling pan constantly until butter is dark golden brown and has nutty aroma, 1 to 3 minutes. Remove skillet from heat and, using heatproof spatula, transfer browned butter to large heatproof bowl. Stir remaining 4 tablespoons butter into hot butter until completely melted.

3. Add both sugars, salt, and vanilla to bowl with butter and whisk until fully incorporated. Add egg and yolk and whisk until mixture is smooth with no sugar lumps remaining, about 30 seconds. Let mixture stand 3 minutes, then whisk for 30 seconds. Repeat process of resting and whisking 2 more times until mixture is thick, smooth, and shiny. Using rubber spatula or wooden spoon, stir in flour mixture until just combined, about 1 minute. Stir in chocolate chips and nuts (if using), giving dough final stir to ensure no flour pockets remain.

4. Divide dough into 16 portions, each about 3 tablespoons (or use #24 cookie scoop). Arrange 2 inches apart on prepared baking sheets, 8 dough balls per sheet. (Smaller baking sheets can be used, but will require 3 batches.)

5. Bake cookies 1 tray at a time until cookies are golden brown and still puffy, and edges have begun to set but centers are still soft, 10 to 14 minutes, rotating baking sheet halfway through baking. Transfer baking sheet to wire rack; cool cookies completely before serving.


Garden Update

Saturday, April 17, 2010

Well, I skipped yoga today. There was no good reason for skipping, I just didn't feel like going...

Instead I gardened.

First I brought the seedlings outside for more light. The peas had at least four leaves each so I transplanted them to our small and humble garden bed. Hopefully the other seedlings will be ready to be planted soon.


After clearing out debris, general pruning, and transferring a catnip plant from pot to ground, I examined the state of affairs. Not bad at all! Everything is doing well. To my surprise, the concord grape plant has lots of brunches growing. I counted around 10. They're so small and cute.


The peaches are still fattening up nicely.


In unrelated news, Michigan brought me cat cheese from Wisconsin to thank me for watching her cats while she was gone. How cute is this? We've since devoured the cat cheese. Very yummy.


Lastly, my work trip to UK has been postponed due to the volcanic ash coming from Ireland. Boo. Oh well, at least it'll be warmer if we go later.

Ode To Flan

Wednesday, April 14, 2010


Flan.

So good.

Flan.

Restaurant Review: Yakyudori Yakitori & Ramen

Monday, April 12, 2010


Yesterday, Badge and I dined at Yakyudori Yakitori & Ramen, a small noodle shop on Convoy. It had good reviews on Yelp so we decided to give it a try.

Located next to a Starbucks, this unassuming restaurant could have easily gone unnoticed. The only indication we had arrived at our destination was the haphazardly hung sign out. Despite the dour exterior, the restaurant was quite home-y inside. Clean, plenty of space, funny posters, great environment to chow down. I ordered the miso ramen with spinach (pictured above) while Badge had the vegetable ramen. The noodles were prefectly cooked with a nice bite to them. The broth was hearty but not too salty as I often find ramen broths. And lastly the pork was deliciously seasoned with a nice layer of fat for flavor. To accompany our meal, we shared a can of Crush Grape, thus reliving our mutual childhood love of grape soda.

Quite a good meal for a lazy Sunday afternoon. Will be back.

A Good Week Indeed

Saturday, April 10, 2010

This week has been quite a good week.

On the home front, I brought the seeds indoors since they weren’t germinating. I took extra care to keep the soil moist and within days I had sprouts! Hooray! Everything has sprouted except the basil. Maybe it’s a late starter. Once these plants have stabilized I’ll probably try my luck with the thyme and chamomile seeds Monkey gave me last year.


Out in the garden, the sage I grew from seed last year is still slowly, slowly, slowly growing. At least it hasn’t died on me.


The two cat nip plants I also grew from seed are really taking off now that I’ve separated them into their own pots.


Everything is looking on the up and up. The little peaches on the peach tree are fattening up nicely. The calla lilies I thought died from soft rot last year are springing up again.


Even the stargazer lily is emerging. Yay for spring!


On the work front, we found out about our yearly merit increases this week. Couldn’t be happier! I also found a memory leak in our software which is exciting (well exciting for a nerd like me). Am working on fixing it now. Lastly, in another week, I’ll be going our UK office with a group of Illumina folks. Should be an interesting experience! Will be sure to document my travels.

On the food front, we went to La Puerta last night after a long hiatus. As usual, the service was slow and annoying but the food was delicious. Afterwards we went to Ghiradelli for a decadent brownie sundae. Mmmm.

So yes it was a good week. The only bad thing is I had the whooping cough which prevented me from doing my normal exercise routine. I think I’ve kicked it though and am back in the groove.

Sea Rocket Take Two

Sunday, April 4, 2010

Yesterday, we had an early dinner at Sea Rocket Bistro.


For starters, we had ciabatta bread with honey garlic spread, gouda with honey on bread, and ceviche with tangerines and chips. The honey garlic spread is like crack. The ceviche looked unappetizing but was oh so tasty. We ate every last bite.


For the main course, we split the fisherman's stew, which we ordered spicy (boy was it spicy!). The stew was delicious - perfectly seasoned with a hearty tomato base. We had to ask for extra bread to sop up all the soup. I wish I could eat this every day. Unfortunately, I forgot to take the before picture, so here's the carnage after the meal.


Afterwards, we went to Heavenly Sent Desserts and had a decadent bread pudding. Super rich. The kind of dessert you can only eat once a year. Here's Badge giving it the evil eye.


Overall, Sea Rocket has definitely moved up the list of our favorite restaurants. Every dish I've had there has been stellar. The dessert is just ok so save your money and get more appetizers (or go to heavenly sent up the road). Yay for good restaurants.

Update

Thursday, April 1, 2010

It's hard to find the energy to post something. I can barely remember what I did yesterday, let alone last week. Here goes...

Last weekend, we went to LA for Badge's cousin Michael's wedding. We drove up Saturday afternoon, took my mom and Uncle Jamie out to El Pollo Inka for Peruvian food (too busy stuffing my face to take pics), and puttered around at home. On Sunday, Badge and I drove down to the beach and did a nice 3 mile run along the Strand. We ran from Manhattan Beach pier to Hermosa and back. It was HOT, well probably high 70's, but I managed to plow my way through the run without stopping. Afterward, we got changed and met up with the bridal party and family in Redondo Beach at the Portofino hotel on the harbor for pictures. Everyone looked great. The bride was beautiful and the groom was dashing. The kids were super cute. Note: the four boys below all belong to the woman on the right. Triplets plus one. They were a riot!


The wedding itself was at the Cheesecake Factory. It turned out to be very well done. They rented out the top floor and it felt very separate from the restaurant. The food was tasty and the DJ was fun. Check out Spike and Frog getting wild on the dance floor.


This week has been sporadically busy at work. I've been a bit glum because my skin has been misbehaving. I seem to be having some allergic reaction to something I'm putting on my face. I blame the face cream my mom recently gave me. So I went to the dermatologist yesterday and he prescribed some medicine to calm it down. Seems to be doing a bit better so will keep my fingers crossed.

Down and out about the skin situation, I only managed to go to yoga on Tues. Fortunately, I found time to run at the gym today at lunch (2 mile, then 1 mile worth of intervals). After work, I came home and decided to do some sun salutations, which rapidly turned into me attempting difficult poses without being properly warmed up. At least I managed to get into the poses.

Viparita salabhasana:


Ganda bherundasana:


Vrschikasana:


Tonight we're going over to Spike and Frogs for Simon's party. He just found out he got accepted into UCLA business school AND they're giving him a full scholarship!! Amazing! So happy for him, even though that means Kris, Simon, and little Sophie will be moving to LA for a couple years. At least they'll be back and who knows, maybe then Sophie will have a little cousin to play with.