Lookie Those Pics
I realized that I forgot to post the picture of my Chinese New Year's Eve dinner (kinda like Thanksgiving dinner for Chinese folks) so here it is:
I made this all by myself, although I took a few shortcuts :O Clockwise from left: Chicken wings with honey garlic sauce, pan-fried (store-bought) turnip cake, steamed catfish with mom's homemade black bean sauce, steamed lettuce with oyster sauce, stir-fried rice cake with shrimps.
Yesterday night we dropped Odi's aunt off at the airport, then we went to Hotaru for some yummy Japanese food and to celebrate the absence of relatives... only to receive a call from mom about Alex's science project mid-dinner. That kiddo picked something way over his head, and even mom's a bit confused. I sent them a MIT video lecture about refraction, hopefully mom's going to make him watch it :D On that note, the udon, sushi, and chawanmushi I had are great as usual, and I took some home for a late night snack :D
Today we went down to the malls since I promised mom I'll try to find and try on a few things, and parking spots were very easy to find (yay!) I couldn't find any of the things she mentioned, but I did finally get myself a new kettle. I did some research online after the stove top kettle I bought from Costco failed to whistle for more than a second, and I settled on the Capresso Electric Kettle. I figured that since the price on Amazon and Sur La Table are the same, I might as well go to the store so I can take a look at the item before I buy it. They had one with a broken box and gave us a 10% discount, so even with tax it came out to less than online :) Here's a picture of it with the granola I finally managed to make:
I modified this recipe and finally made a batch of "plain" granola (skipped the fruits and nuts, added in crispy rice, and filled in honey when I ran out of maple syrup.) This stuff isn't bad :)
While I'm at it, I'd like to tempt you all with my lunch at the Counter:
Mmm, chili cheese fries. this thing is huge!
I got my 1/3 lb. beef burger with grilled onions, lettuce blend, tomatoes, and hard boil egg, plus roasted garlic aioli and gruyere on a regular bun. There was no way I can finish the whole thing with the sides I ordered, so I split it in half.
This is how much fries we had left, plus the Hobo Pack I ordered (because I felt bad we weren't eating enough veggies.)
After lunch and Sur La Table, we stopped by the newly opened Pinkberry for a taste of their frozen yogurt:
We decided on the original flavor with strawberries and chocolate chips. I wish they used chocolate shavings or flakes since I didn't quite like how hard the chips were compared to the other toppings, and I'm usually not a huge fan of yogurt (partly for the tartness), but this one is alright. I won't stand in a line to buy it again though, I just wanted to try it once.
We picked up dinner plus a few things at Mitsuwa after the Santana Row/Valley Fair mall crawl, then went home and watched Amores Perros (the movie poster Vero had in our room, plus she played Me Van A Matar a lot... darn catchy melody) while eating sushi and cupcakes (from Kara's Cupcake in Santana Row.) Odi and I agree that peanut butter chocolate is their best flavor :)
I made this all by myself, although I took a few shortcuts :O Clockwise from left: Chicken wings with honey garlic sauce, pan-fried (store-bought) turnip cake, steamed catfish with mom's homemade black bean sauce, steamed lettuce with oyster sauce, stir-fried rice cake with shrimps.
Yesterday night we dropped Odi's aunt off at the airport, then we went to Hotaru for some yummy Japanese food and to celebrate the absence of relatives... only to receive a call from mom about Alex's science project mid-dinner. That kiddo picked something way over his head, and even mom's a bit confused. I sent them a MIT video lecture about refraction, hopefully mom's going to make him watch it :D On that note, the udon, sushi, and chawanmushi I had are great as usual, and I took some home for a late night snack :D
Today we went down to the malls since I promised mom I'll try to find and try on a few things, and parking spots were very easy to find (yay!) I couldn't find any of the things she mentioned, but I did finally get myself a new kettle. I did some research online after the stove top kettle I bought from Costco failed to whistle for more than a second, and I settled on the Capresso Electric Kettle. I figured that since the price on Amazon and Sur La Table are the same, I might as well go to the store so I can take a look at the item before I buy it. They had one with a broken box and gave us a 10% discount, so even with tax it came out to less than online :) Here's a picture of it with the granola I finally managed to make:
I modified this recipe and finally made a batch of "plain" granola (skipped the fruits and nuts, added in crispy rice, and filled in honey when I ran out of maple syrup.) This stuff isn't bad :)
While I'm at it, I'd like to tempt you all with my lunch at the Counter:
Mmm, chili cheese fries. this thing is huge!
I got my 1/3 lb. beef burger with grilled onions, lettuce blend, tomatoes, and hard boil egg, plus roasted garlic aioli and gruyere on a regular bun. There was no way I can finish the whole thing with the sides I ordered, so I split it in half.
This is how much fries we had left, plus the Hobo Pack I ordered (because I felt bad we weren't eating enough veggies.)
After lunch and Sur La Table, we stopped by the newly opened Pinkberry for a taste of their frozen yogurt:
We decided on the original flavor with strawberries and chocolate chips. I wish they used chocolate shavings or flakes since I didn't quite like how hard the chips were compared to the other toppings, and I'm usually not a huge fan of yogurt (partly for the tartness), but this one is alright. I won't stand in a line to buy it again though, I just wanted to try it once.
We picked up dinner plus a few things at Mitsuwa after the Santana Row/Valley Fair mall crawl, then went home and watched Amores Perros (the movie poster Vero had in our room, plus she played Me Van A Matar a lot... darn catchy melody) while eating sushi and cupcakes (from Kara's Cupcake in Santana Row.) Odi and I agree that peanut butter chocolate is their best flavor :)