Tuesday, September 23, 2014

Guava Time


At my childhood home, there's a guava tree in the backyard. I don't know what kind of guava it is, but from Googling "types of guava" I'm going to guess it's a China Guava tree (http://www.21food.com/products/guava-49088.html). This makes sense because we are Chinese, right?!
The fragrant aroma is very distinctive and indescribable if you ask me. The flesh is soft and mushy but it also has edible seeds inside that are hard and crunchy. As I type I feel like I got part of a seed stuck in my teeth. I need floss. 

Anyway, the scent and sight of these little fruits remind me of my childhood. Running around in the lawn sprinklers on a hot Southern California day (no one would be caught doing that now in this major drought...sad), attempting 100 cartwheels before collapsing from dizziness, and of course being a typical little Asian girl and munching on weird Asian fruits.  I remember when the tree would produce an abundance of guavas. So many we couldn't possibly eat them all before they rotted or before the birds got to them. All my aunties and uncles (family friends) would come over with their reused plastic grocery bags and pick the guavas. Their bags were almost overflowing! Those were the days...!

One day if I am to ever own a house with a backyard (I must say WITH a backyard because nowadays those are almost nonexistent in today's OC real estate) I would want fruit trees so my child/children could pick off weird fruits and love them as much as I did. But for now, I will gladly take fruit from my parents house and enjoy them on my condo patio. :)

Did you grow up with fruit trees? Vegetable plants? How about now? 

Saturday, September 20, 2014

Pinterest Pins...Failures and Successes

Raise your hand if you're a Pinterest fan! Personally I have a love/hate relationship with the site.  I love the ease of finding ideas on there and the ability to organize my sometimes chaotic thoughts.  I love looking at pretty and eye catching images.  A lot of my time is wasted  occupied by perusing through the collection of pins that others have found.  It's like little virtual treasures.

Most of my pins are related to food--cookie and cake recipes and tips, dinner recipes, slow cooker recipes, even juicing recipes from that time of my life (once).  However sometimes I feel like some of the pins I find can be deceiving, especially the food ones.  The pins make the process look so simple and when executed by the amateur like me???  Well let's just say there have been a few failures and successes on my attempts.

This week I completed three recipes I found on Pinterest.  It all started when my husband looked in the fridge and found about 30 string cheeses that were about to expire (I bought a huge bag of them from Costco thinking I could totally eat them all...I know I'm not the only one that as done that!).  Then I recalled browsing Pinterest in the past and seeing some fun snack ideas with this ingredient.  I thought this was a good time to try them.  Of course not only did I find string cheese recipes, but I found about 10 other pins to add to my "Taking Care of My Tummy" board that were unrelated to string cheese.  So this week I attempted two string cheese recipes and one recipe for mini shepherd's pie.  Why shepherd's pie?  Well I also had pie dough in the freezer I thought I should use up.  Pie dough stays good in the freezer you say?  Whatever, I just wanted shepherd's pie, okay?!  hehe :)

Moving on, the first recipe I tried was oven baked mozzarella sticks found here (and if you scroll to the bottom there is another recipe for oven baked onion rings... yea, I added that pin to my collection too).  The ingredients and process looked simple enough: string cheese, bread crumbs, an egg, flour, and seasonings.  I followed the easy instructions and this is what happened:


This was a Pinterest FAIL.  The taste itself wasn't too bad though.  A little on the salty side, but over all not too bad.  The cheese all melted and because of that it became a big blob of cheesy-breadcrumb-thing.  I probably would not make this again.



Next on my list was a recipe for cheesy-stuffed garlic butter crescents found here.  I spruced it up a little by adding pepperoni because I saw that idea on a different pin and because I love pepperoni (and salami, and prusciutto, and pancetta, and bacon, and and and...).  This again also asked for easy ingredients and had simple steps.  As a result, this is what happened:





The oozing cheese...
















This was a Pinterest SUCCESS!  These were so tasty and addicting.  I dipped them in marinara sauce sprinkled with Italian seasoning and voila! It reminded me of an upscale pigs-in-a-blanket appetizer.  hehe Okay, not upscale, but a variation on crescent roll recipes.

And finally, the non-string cheese recipe I tried was mini shepherd's pie.  I saw someone else pin this recipe (found here) and it used muffin pans and ground beef.  However I remembered I got these really adorable mini pie dishes (thanks L & C!) and I had not tried using them yet.  I thought this would be a fabulous recipe to break them in with. I also decided to use ground lamb instead.  As with the other recipes, the ingredients and instructions were simple (see a trend?) so I said, "Why not?!  I love shepherd's pie!"  This dish also reminded me of our trip to the UK back in 2012 and ate lots of this stuff there.  That was a fun and delicious trip!  Here is what happened with this version of the recipe:






How cute are these little pie dishes?
I love that they are sunshine yellow!
This was a Pinterest SUCCESS!  At least I think so!  My husband has yet to try his so I will update you on what he thinks later.  The ground lamb brought a different dimension to the flavors of this dish and the crust gave it another textured layer that was quite delightful!  I would definitely recommend you all trying this recipe!






Well, that's it for now.  I'm sure I will post many more reviews on things I have found using Pinterest and letting you know if they are failures or successes.  In the meantime, this is a fun site I found (while on Facebook, not Pinterest) about other people's Pinterest failures.  It's quite funny!!!  Check it out here and have fun nom nom nomming! :)

Thursday, September 18, 2014

A Morning Stroll with a Morning Treat

There have been quite some scorchering days here in the OC. In the high 90s and low 100s which is pretty warm for September. Or is it? I guess weather here is sometimes unpredictable when it comes to seasons other than summer. It could be very hot like it is now. Or feel like a real autumn or maybe winter. Haha Who am I kidding? It never feels like winter in September. Heck, it rarely feels like winter in winter! That reminds me of a day in college and it was 80 degrees in the middle of February! Don't tell my parents, but I totally ditched class that day to go to the beach because why not?! :) I miss college. But I don't miss the extra 20+ pounds I gained back then! 

Anyway, I wanted to get in a stroll before the heat became too unbearable for baby and me. So I strapped her in and walked to our local Starbucks. I had been craving for a little coffee lately and something hearty to eat. Do bagels count as something hearty? I count them as that. 

The heat wasn't too bad yet and actually it was quite enjoyable especially in the shade with a slightly cool breeze. Though as I'm typing this under the shade at an outdoor table it keeps getting sunnier and sunnier out there. I should probably head back anyway. The little one feel asleep and if she stays asleep this mommy can catch a little nap!! Oh wait... I just had a latte...=caffeine... Let's see how this goes!


Monday, September 15, 2014

HAI! Sushi!

As a continuation from my last blog mentioning life in 3 hour increments... Finding time to eat is sometimes a challenge. I have been blessed with a sleepy baby (for now) and during her naps I mostly do have the chance to enjoy a meal or two! 

After a morning running errands with my sweet one, we got home and I made some rice. The Chinese girl in me was craving some for lunch and I am thankful for the quick cooking setting on my fancy rice cooker. I fed my little one (with breast milk not rice. Don't freak out) and put her down for a nap (she's currently in and out of sleep right now as I write this! "Hurry!" I'm thinking), and put her laundry away. Then I took a look in the kitchen at what else I could eat. And I knew my avocados were ripening quickly in this heat (it's about 90+ degrees F out there!). So I thought how about I make some maki sushi?! And I did!

Yum yum in my tum...my. And it was quick! After my baby fell asleep and I put her laundry away my rice was ready! I got all the fillings and toppings out and rolled some sushi together. Here's the breakdown:
-cooked rice with sushi seasoning
-sliced riped avos
-nori sheets
-cucumbers (I had leftover sliced up from a dinner salad the other night)
-sesame seeds
-furikaki seasoning: just because I had some so why not
-bamboo sushi rolly thing
-sharp knife


Spread some rice on the nori, pile the ingredients across the rice, carefully roll it up! Slice with your sharp knife (if you really want to be fancy, dip your knife in hot water to make your slices cleaner). Now I am not a professional at this nor do I really know what I'm doing. So don't get all huffy and puffy on me knowing this is all wrong. Hehe this is the best I do under a time limit and with a hungry tummy! Don't forget the shoyu/soy sauce and the wasabi!!! Nom nom nom!!!


Hello stranger. How've you been?

So it's been a while bloggy blog. A lot has happened since who knows how long. The biggest event that has happened was this-
And this--
Yes. That happened. Really. I know. Crazy. I think so too. 

Our baby girl arrived in early August and it has been a whirlwind of an adventure since. We are so in love with everything about her. 

As you all know, life with a newborn is quite hectic. I basically live life in 2-3 hour increments. If I'm lucky 4 hour increments. That's very rare at this time. Baby's cycle goes like this--sleep, wake up, change diaper, feed, chill out, and then starts over. Everyone tells me "Sleep when she sleeps!!" And trust me I do. Just not all the time. I know it will get better and honestly I am not complaining. She is really (knock on wood) for the most part and great sleeper!!

There's so much I want to do while she sleeps (no particular order)--
-stare at her while she sleeps
-catch up on my tv shows
-shower
-brush teeth
-eat
-drink water
-eat
-go to the bathroom
-reply to emails, texts, calls
-stalk people on Facebook (you do it too, don't lie)
-eat
-catch up on Candy Crush
-clean/put dishes away (I don't want to do this but my head feels better when it's done)
-do/put laundry away (again, I don't really want to do this but if I want don't want to smell wearing dirty clothes then it's a must)
-eat
-paint my toenails
-bake cookies
-eat
-and of course catch up on this bloggy blog!!!

I know I've made broken promises before about being more consistent writing on here. So I won't promise. But I can tell you that I will try my best. As with my new baby daughter, I will try my best. I know you won't cry if time passes and there's nothing new on here because no one really knows I actually have a blog anyway. Unless you stalk me on Facebook. Which is ok because we all stalk each other. No judging. :)