Moving

So i have decided to leave blogspot.com for tumblr. I know it has been over a year since i have posted but i feel like tumblr has so many more options for me to choose from. So here i go again..trying to blog. we'll see how it goes!

cooking.weekend.life. update

So its been forever since I've blogged and that's because i feel like I don't have anything interesting to share.

Cooking journey: After the sinigang, i made southwest chicken with a black bean sauce and pico di gallo, then i made my mom's famous Lou's chicken, after that i made fried banana spring rolls (yummy), and yesterday, i made tomatillo chicken stew. Whhhew, this resolution has been a journey, but is probably the best resolution i have ever made.

Last year my resolution was to put my shopping cart back where i got it. Too easy.


So what have i been up to... Last weekend i made a trip out to LA for my good friend Bonnie's 23rd birthday. We got a suite at the Westin and we went to this place called j-lounge. Super nice and very Hollywood. That Sunday i went night snowboarding. I used my new snowboard for the first time and broke down crying on the ski lift feeling like a failure for being so bad :( snow and tears do not mix.

This past weekend I spent time with my classmates. I saw my friend's hair for the first time and I couldn't even recognize her! She has always worn a hijab because there are guys in our class. Therefore, she could never show me her hair. I was introduced to Palestinian culture too. I met her 16 year old cousin who was engaged and her 25 year old sister who already had 4 kids! Having many kids is considered a huge blessing in their religion. She comes from a family of twelve. And i thought Jon and Kate plus eight had it bad.

Anyways, other life news is that I just finished my interview at western U for PA school. I don't find out till march, but if i don't get in I'll be officially heart broken. :( Even though i know i cant do anything about it now, I'm stressing and I'm constantly thinking about it (like now).

Anyways.. pray/wish me luck.

Bad decisions

My 5 bad decisions of the week:

1) Put a water bottle in my purse, not knowing that the cap was loose. Everything was soaked.
2) While i was cleaning out my purse, i lost my credit card.
3) My car got broken into that night. They stole my external hard drive full of all my pictures.
4) Drank four cups of prune juice not knowing its strong effects on the digestive system.
5) Went to LA for a friends birthday, came home at 5 AM and had clinicals at 6:30 am.
.... called in sick and didnt go to clinicals...



My only good decision i made this week:
Making sinigang!! Sinigang is characterized by its sour flavor. It is a mixture of beef and vegetables such as okra,sitaw,lebanos,gabi, kang kong,tomatoes and onions. It was yummy. I think I made enough to feed a party of 20. I guess i'll be eating it for a couple days. My love for cooking is growing exponentially. I can't wait to cook more dishes and experiment with ingredients. My next buy: a dutch oven :)

cooking and sandwiches

So after the sole meuniere, i have cooked chicken picatta with artichoke, mushroom, and lemon garlic sauce, bread pudding with rum sauce, and today.. the classic adobo.

By the way, this is the first time i skinned a whole chicken and cut it up. Let me tell you..i would rather scale a fish and take out its guts than do this task. After i was done i was regretting not googling it and watching a how to video on youtube or something. Anyways, the whole time i was cutting it up i was like.. "Pooooor chicken." It had its little kidneys, its lungs, liver, and heart.. :( sooo sad.

I also learned how to cook with wine. What an eye opener!! Wine does amazing things to food and to people. I love it!!

:) i'm pretty proud of myself but i have found that i am not much of a baker. I'm not sure if it's because i do all the mixing with my powerful muscles or i just suck. I was trying to beat seven eggs, milk, cinnamon, and sugar.. and in the end it looked weird. I think i know what i need next.. a Kitchen Aid!! hehe.

anyways! I went to san diego last weekend. We stayed at the hard rock hotel and went bar/club hopping. The night ended with boys fighting with random guys and me if u have ever watched How i met your mother-- eating sandwiches. lol.

Sole Meuniere

Yesterday I cooked sole meuniere. I was pretty scared to cook this since this was the first time i was cooking it, but after i completed the task, it was simple and amazingly delicious!

Julia Child explains this well:

It arrived whole: a large, flat Dover sole that was perfectly browned in a sputtering butter sauce with a sprinkling of chopped parsley on top. The waiter carefully placed the platter in front of us, stepped back, and said: "Bon appètit!

I closed my eyes and inhaled the rising perfume. Then I lifted a forkful of fish to my mouth, took a bite, and chewed slowly. The flesh of the sole was delicate, with a light but distinct taste of the ocean that blended marvelously with the browned butter. I chewed slowly and swallowed. It was a morsel of perfection."

Anyways, all this recipe needs is: butter, lemon, lemon zest, salt and pepper, flour, and chopped parsely. It's amazing how simple ingredients can create a beautiful blend of flavor and zest!!

Life in cali

2010 has officially started for me. The moment i came back from texas, daniel and i went to the mission inn for brunch. As we were brought to our table, i admired all the pretty christmas decorations,the 5-6 tables of food,and the eggs benedict, omelete, belgian waffle, and pancake cook station. This wasnt as amazing as the all you could drink champagne buffet. LOL. We made a toast to a new year and 4-5 champagne glasses later, i swear i saw two parrots making out. haha.

As for my cooking journey, I have cooked freshly homemade chicken soup with my new pots! Thanks to daniel for my martha stewart 12 piece set of pots + a nice frying pan. :) Tomorrow and Friday i will be cooking. This will my fulfill my three days a week of cooking. By the way, i love cooking. Someday my sister and i will own our own little bakery/cafe--something my mom always dreamed of doing.

Today I got a haircut. Sometimes i feel going to the salon is like therapy. I love going to aveda because everything they use is natural. The one in redlands is like a cute little house with awesome hairstylists. At aveda, they give you head and back massage and let you soak your feet in warm rose water. After that,my hairdresser or therapist asks me about my life and i realize i end up telling her my whole life story. As i leave the salon, i feeling physically and emotionally refreshed and my hair feels freed of split ends. YAY for haircuts!

random: drunken mandi trying to be a nutcracker.

i heart champagne and bubbles

happy new year!!

I can't believe it's 2010. 2010 is going to be filled with lots of new joys and disappointments. For example, in 6 months im graduating and in 3 months i'm going to find out if i'm going to get into PA school or not.
Joy=graduating
Disappointment=not getting into PA school.
We'll see what happens. :)

Anyways, a new year means a new years resolution right? Well, my new years resolution is.. ***Drum Roll****

To COOK!

:) yes, my goal this year is to cook at least three times a week. We will see how that goes. First, i want to find a good cook book. I'm trying to look for some good reviews so i can pick the best one. I'll let yall know which one i use! Also, hopefully... ( crosses fingers) i will have a full new set of cooking pans and pots someday.. nothing fancy but nothing too cheap.. I need to look for reviews for that too. Anyways, i was totally inspired by the movie julie and julia to start cooking.. so thank you!

My christmas break has come to an end, and let me tell you.. i dont think i'll be coming home anytime soon. I say this every year but this year i think i will stick to my plan. If i do come home it will be for 3-4 days ( it's the amount of days i can take without going cuuurr--aaazy). I have a new "family" now. Its pretty hilarious because my dad's gf has 2 daughters and my dad has two daughters so we all look the same age and we look like were one big family.

Whenever i talk about my dad's gf to my friends, they all think that i hate her and that i compare her to my mom, but in actuality i like her. I'm pretty surprised how my dad gets the ladies. I hate how a lot of people think he is a resemblance of tiger woods. It makes me itchy!!! and i'm like " sick, why the !?!?!? are you telling me this?" He has lots of fans. hopefully not hos like tiger. I mean when i was single he freaking got a girlfriend before me!! How sad is that. Anyways, this lady is super nice. She takes care of my dad and she likes to have fun. Imagine if he were dating an SDA. She would be so boring and think that fun was watching the heritage singers in concert. lol! This lady dances a million dances like salsa, swing, the foxtrot, probably even hip hop!! HAHA. Plus, she buys my sister and i a bulk load of Vietnamese sandwiches.. my favorite! lol. Enough about her.

What else. OH ya! The annual circus christmas party was at a nice italian restaurant ( not a usual setting for a circus but that just makes it crazier). The food made me go to the restroom but other than that, i enjoyed the bread dipped in olive oil and parmesean cheese. There arent many people i know at church anymore like this new girl that looks like snooki from jersey shores (who is BTW !?!?!? annoying) this can be confirmed by a large amount of people. Other than that i see my besties like janet, jill, don, elydon, and mervyn which is nice. These are the people you see after a year and feel like you never were apart. This = Awesome.

On new years, i got pretty tipsy thanks to joanna! She brought ciroc and jack.. It was good enough to last me through the night of having to spend it with a bunch of old people. we also fired a massive amount of fireworks. We got in trouble though. Also, my sister's god daughter is the meanest bitch i have ever met. She's eight years old and she told me that I needed to get out of her way or else she would do something about it.. she also told me i was a stupid teenager . My sister needs to slap her. I cant believe an eight year old got to me. My sister says her punishment is her thick mustache that she has grown au naturale.

I'm off to have dinner with my dad's gf and sister now. ONE MORE DAY till i leave.. then im on my mission: operation COOK!