Father's Day

I baked yummy cakes as gifts for my father and uncle. =)

Picture One: Violet's Pina Colada Cake with toasted coconut, pineapples, kiwis, and strawberries.

Picture Two: Violet's Banana Chocolate Cake with strawberries and powdered sugar.

Instand hit at our Father's Day Family BBQ at my uncle's house. My dad especially liked his cake. He is a huge pina colada fan. Not too shabby for baking blindly, unplanned, and no recipe in hand.

Success at my feet.

Gosh dang, these cowboy cookies are yummy!

Howdy, stranger! Give these delectable cookies a try. Cowboy cookies, in my opinion, are a delightful post-workout snack that I look forward to sinking my teeth into after a cycle class or long jog. Oftentimes, when I would feel weak due to my low blood sugar, I would pop one before working out to keep me fueled for an hour. Philliam likes to pack some for his several hour bike rides and has found that it's more refreshing than snacking on energy bars. My parents likes to have one (1) cowboy cookie with their teas and my little cousin enjoys mindlessly snacking on a bunch due to its chewy yet crunchy texture and the "yummyness" factor. It's a win-win for me! I find it much better than packaged, store-bought cookies. I can't stand those. Unless it's the 9 boxes of Girl Scout cookies that I ordered. Now that's an exception. ^__^ Editor's note: Sorry for the ugly photo of my cowboy cookies. I didn't put any effort into rolling the cookie dough because I was too lazy. Yes. I'm lazy. At least I'm comfortable with admitting it. Although, these cookies are highly delicious... *munches* Anywhoo, here's a recipe that I've tweaked to my own liking to ensure that it will deliver enough energy after my workouts but are still delicious enough to enjoy rather than dreading (like those power bars *shudders*). Next week, I'm going to try adding some muscle/protein powder and see how that works out for me. Gather up these babies: 1 1/3 c flour (I like mixing 1/3 c organic oat brand flour into 1 c of regular flour for my cookies. If you don't want to, then just use regular flour. It doesn't really matter.) 1 tsp baking powder 1 tsp baking soda 1/4 tsp salt 1 c cooking oats 1/2 c brown sugar 1/2 c white sugar 1 egg 1/2 c butter (one stick) 1 tsp vanilla 1/2 c m&ms (regular) 1/2 c dark chocolate chips 1/2 c assorted nuts (I use pecans, walnuts, and almonds) Follow these simple, exact directions: 1. In a medium sized bowl, melt the stick of butter in the microwave for 20-30 seconds then let it chill in the fridge until it reaches room temperature. I normally leave it in there while I'm gathering and preparing the dry mixture. 2. In a small bowl, mix the nuts, m&ms, and dark chocolate chips. Set aside. 3. In separate a large mixing bowl, mix the first five dry ingredients (flour, baking soda & powder, salt, and oats). Mix well. 4. Now add in the white and brown sugar to the flour mixture. Mix very well. Mix with your hands if you need to. Make sure the mixture is smooth with no bumps. Brown sugar has a tendency to clump so loosen them apart and mix with the other dry ingredients. Set aside. 5. Pour the candy mixture into the flour mixture and mix that really well. Get your hands in there if you have to. 6. Take the butter out of the fridge (make sure it's still liquid, if not, back in the microwave it goes). Pour in the vanilla. Crack the egg into the butter and vanilla mixture. Mix and beat. Make sure the wet mixture is not warm, but room temperature or slightly cold, otherwise, you'd have melted chocolate and discolored m&m's. 7. Now pour the wet mixture into the dry mixture. Mix well. Yes, do it. Mix it very well. 8. After mixing all ingredients together, stick the big bowl of cookie dough in the fridge to chill for 5 minutes. While waiting for the cookie dough to chill, I normally clean up my work station because it's just something that I'm programmed to do. Clean. I like a nice clean work space. Bet your bottom dollar, I do. 9. After 5 minutes, take the cookie dough out of the fridge and preheat the oven to 350 degrees. 10. Now here is the fun part. Getting your hands dirty! I use an ice cream scoop to determine the size of my cookie, which is about 1 inch to 1.5 inch. Roll the cookie dough into balls and set it on a parchment covered baking sheet. Set each cookie ball 1 inch apart from one another. 11. Take a flat spoon and slightly press the top of each cookie dough balls so that way the cookies will have a nice, round form when baked. 12. Once the last cookie dough has been balled up, stick it in the preheated oven and bake for 10 minutes for chewy cookies or 12 minutes for crunchy, yet chewy in the middle, cookies. 12. After the timer goes off, immediately remove the cookies from the oven and let these beauties cool down on the counter before eating. I hope you enjoy this recipe as much as I do. And I mean it. I love my version of cowboy cookies. Enjoy!

Never wasted...

...but will never be. As I was washing, stripping, and chopping up vegetables this past weekend, I couldn't help but notice the amount of vegetable scraps that I was tossing out. The peels and the roots were all tossed into the ever growing trash bin. Sure, it's just one trash bin in this kitchen, but this house has other trash bins in other rooms. So if there's four bedrooms, two bathrooms, and one kitchen, then that would be seven trash bins for one household. Now every "trash day" we would wheel out our weekly trash for the dump pickup and so does 800 other homes in the area. Then there are 800 other houses to the left of this area, then another 800 in the other areas, and a billion more in the surrounding area. All with different trash pick up days. THAT'S A LOT OF TRASH. For over a year, I've been a more mindful consumer by purchasing items that didn't have much packaging or any at all. I tried the stay-local-grocery-shopping thing for awhile, but that got expensive. I tried the farmer's market thing but it was too time consuming. Then I tried living without food for 10 minutes. I almost died. Now I have this bright idea about reducing my trash when it comes to kitchen scraps. These (egg shells, apple core, vegetable roots, potato and banana peels, etc.) can easily be thrown into a home compost box that I've been meaning to put together in my parent's backyard (if my father would give me some room) that way I'd have lovely soil to plant more vegetables to end my quest for more local food. How much more local can you get if you're eating food from your own backyard? But it's hard to maintain a compost box when you're in between homes. I can't believe I just said that. O_O You heard it here first. Urgh, I just want one place to call my own, not "my parent's house" or "my boyfriend's house." But a place where I can freely have my own compost box and no underwear on the floor or annoying siblings. A place that's quiet and mine. For now, since I have two homes that just begs for me to be there, maybe I'll just build a mobile compost box instead. Problem solved. XD

Tiresome Weekend

Another one of those busy weekends. I made three tiramisu cakes. One for a friend's birthday, my mother's birthday, and Philliam's house (Phil's cake was made from leftover batter). Not only that, Philliam and I cooked lunch and dinner all weekend. We didn't eat out at all! Which is great, but tiresome and troublesome at the same time. I need to start putting together my personal recipe book to keep track of what I've been cooking/baking. Everyone knows I don't do the conventional cooking either. I just throw things in, do a taste check, and a dash of this and that to suit my taste buds. Anyway, I told Philliam I wasn't going to cook this entire week until Friday. Maybe the only thing I'll make is the green rice everyone loves so much. And maybe some banana cupcakes.

California State Fair - Weird Wild & Wacky

My short trip to the California State Fair was enjoyable as I was able to catch up with fellow friends who I haven’t seen in a month. The last time I saw SouVi and Khoun was back in late May on our crazy rafting adventure. I haven’t seen Richard since I left for my trip to South Asia. When I had gotten back to California, Richard was in Mississippi, visiting his parents. It’s funny how that worked out. Being the total foodie that I am, I was more excited about the fried goodness than the oddball theme for this year, which was “Weird Wild & Wacky.” I can’t help being a glutton. Although, this past year, I haven’t thought about food as being a pleasurable act but treating food more like fuel to energize me. This kind of behavior isn’t exactly forced, it was something that I just started doing and I noticed this behavior towards food when I was in Asia. This probably has to do with my part in giving up beef.

America, Philliam and I were the first to arrive out of our bunch. Since we were starving, there was no way that we were going to wait for everyone to get there so we headed over to the Jumbo Dog stand. Yes... It’s just what I needed (the Cars!!!! Reminisces on ‘80s childhood.) The corndog was delish, I devoured every bit of it while I annoyingly talked to someone on the phone. -___- By the time our groupie arrived, it was almost dusk. In the pictures, you can see the gorgeous skyline. I absolutely love the colors. I won’t bore you to death with the written account of what went on, so I’ll go ahead and post all the pictures so you can see what we did.

Friday Friday

I'll be at the California State Fair today. Can't wait for all the yummy food. I'll be documenting my short adventure.

Car Shopping, the experience.

After my parents constant urging for me to get off my lazy butt, Philliam and I went to CarMax to do some research on what kind of car I should get. My parents were opposed to my CarMax visit, but I figured, since I want to start paying for my own car, then I should get a used one to help ME out. Parents... they are so bizarre. I did find some that I like, but they are way out of my price range and “need.’ This was at the Roseville CarMax, you know, just in case you have a good soul and decide to purchase something nice for me. Remember, I did have a terrible day yesterday. Well, I'm still feeling rather shitty today. =(

Those aren't the cars that I'm planning on getting, but WOW, right? I do want that Porsche Ceyenne someday. I even saw the 2007 Shelby that's posted on the CarMax website. Gorgeous, ain't she? Because CarMax had sold a lot of their cars that day, there wasn't much to look at when Philliam and I went there during the evening. I was hoping for some hybrid cars or any car that's good on gas. But I really want to hold on to my current broken car or buy the new model... urgh. After our car snooping, we were hungry little monkeys. We decided to visit his friend who owns a Thai restaurant in the area, but the problem was, he doesn't have her number in his new phone so trying to figure how the name, location, etc. was like finding a needle in the haystack. We even checked her facebook account to see if she posted her phone number on there, but all she had listed was her old disconnected number. So after an hour of searching and wasting gas, we decided to hit up downtown. It was a great idea because we had good 'ol soul food at Sandra Dee's and I saw a huge group of UCD students. It was nice. =) I took some pictures of the back side of a mechanics shop. I love downtown. I'm so glad I work in downtown. I'm still thinking about whether or not I should go to grad school in LA or stay in Sac. That's a topic for next time.

Who would have thought car shopping online would also be so boring, tiring, lame, makes-me-hungry, etc.?? That last picture is of me pretending to get into a car that I want. Can anyone figure out what kind of car that is? Since being back from my vacation, I have a lot of summer reading to catch up on. Someone signed me up for magazine subscriptions 3 months ago and I've been receiving them in bulk. I'd hate for the magazines to go to waste so I plan on reading them along with books that I purchased last year that I have yet to read. I can't wait when session slows down in 2 weeks! That means leisurely reading time. =)

sick...

I've been sick since Monday. Throwin' up by the gallons, I tell ya. Bed ridden the entire Monday, called in sick to work. Went to only 2 of my classes on Tuesday and had to skip my last class due to major joint pains and headache. Ended up getting frozen yogurt to cure my aches and agony followed by some heartfelt cartoons. 

Wednesday. Thought I was doing good. Woke up at 6 am and declared to myself "Today, I shall work and go to my one and only class!" Hobbled out of bed to hit the alarm only to be met by my disgruntled head pains and back pains and more joint pains followed by... yet another barfing session. ooh yes. 

...turned off the alarm and hurled myself back to bed. Woke up at 8:58am, already 58 minutes late to work. Called in, said I still wasn't feeling well, then passed out again. Woke up again at 10:12am. Hobbled out of bed and to the bathroom, fiddled for my toothbrush, began the brushing process with half eyes closed. Went back to bed and just laid there. Then I decided that my headache wasn't as bad as Monday, so why not surf the web?

Got on craigslist.com, clicked under "missed connections" (ooh yah!) to began my morning readings. Well, I came across this that really just razzledazzled my day. 

wtf?!?!

this dude/dudette should be kept far away from society. First off, I had a hard time trying to follow what they were trying to say due to run ons, incompletes, and grammar issues. They must have been in a hurry since they had about 3 minutes left on the public computer and the 12 year old is telling them to hurry the fuck up! HAHA! 

I better get off the computer and do some yoga if my joints permit. I'm going to try and see if I can make it to my class tonight since I missed it yesterday. Hopefully I'll get better. Also thanks to everyone who checked in to offer some advices and tips on overcoming whatever illness I have. =)

Little Bit of Update

...before I disappear again =P Warning! Picture heavy post!!!

To make up for all my absences this year, I decided that I should sit my ass down with my homies from Pepperidge Farm and do a post on what I've been doing from January through March. I know I haven't been blogging as much, but only to whine about California's budget woes, so I hope this post will be as interesting to you readers as it was to me. I didn't do very much since I was very busy and it was also very cold!

January 2009

New Years Party at Philliam Wallace's house! I invited more of my friends who didn’t show up… I was sad. Also Richie couldn’t be there since he was visiting his parents in Mississippi. This party was planned on a whim. It was a "New Years Cocktail Party" so that meant I was in charge of making desserts (cup cakes and tiramisu!) and decorations. I even wrote a proposal letter to Philliam suggesting how we would go about planning and an itinerary for the night. I wish I still had it so I can post it. That proposal was sort of chucked out the window by the PPC, Party Planning Committee. But you know what? It's all cool. Not that I cared. A drunk party giraffe isn't that cool, I guess. Some people have no humor. At. All. But like I said. It's cool. -____-;;

A picture of the crew who planned this fantastical event! =) Pictured above is, left to right, Philliam (green), Jasmine (black jacket), myself (grey dress with a man jaw), Eric (gravitating head), Ruby (black number), and Sunny (glasses and he DID NOT help with the planning, he just jumped in - lazy bum). My friends stopped by! It was great seeing them. I joked that I got to have them for New Years while my ex got them for Halloween as part of the separation deal. Haha stupid joke that shouldn't even be a laughing matter. And I still have that name card on my back. It says Mrs. Buttersworth. haha

In the beginning, we played a "Name Game" to get everyone comfortable with one another and also to get them to mingle around rather than stand in the corner by their lonesome self. I’m guilty of such behavior. Haha!!! Here’s Mike, playing some relaxing music for the arrival of our guests, Sunny + Dave, and the ever so cute Jasmine and Chris.

What kind of party would it be without the drinkies and drunkies?

Katie, Dave, and Mike at the piano.

Little Miss Perfect never-takes-a-bad-picture RUBY!

We busted out Rock Band since it was apparent that people needed to get rockin’! yay!

Lovely ladies.

The lovely couple, sincerely yours =)

His card says “Pamela Anderson” hehee

Groupie!

Sunny the Bunny on the piano. Probably trying to play “Kingdom Hearts” theme song.

It just wouldn’t be me, if I wasn't eating something at a party with food. I can’t help that I’m such a glutton!

Check out these kids.

The party was a complete success and I like to believe that everyone enjoyed themselves at the so called "New Years Cocktail Party." But cleaning it wasn't so fun. Philliam and I didn't go to bed until 6am! We woke up around 9am later. haha!

L’Jan’s ugly sweater party! Can you believe this handsome man turned 30 years and still as hip as ever? I wore my rainbow itchy sweater that my Grandma Sally in Indiana gave to me when I was 12 years old. I lived in Fresno during that time, so there was no need for a sweater since all I remember was that it was humidly hot! The sweater itself was really hot and itchy despite the cold Sacramento weather. The cute married couple Michelle and Nick in their fantastic ugly sweaters from Goodwill. This was taken at Arigatos Suchi Bar and Resturant.

Afterwards, we hit up L’Jan’s place to show off our ugly sweaters. There were Catwalks so we can vote for the ugliest sweaters. Philliam and I left before they hit the clubs since us early 20s and mid 20s kids get pretty fagged once night falls.

Here are the models showcasing their hideous sweaters. 1) I loved Allan in his tiny snowflake sweater! He is pretty creative to wear a little girl’s sweater that shows off his lovely midsection. 2) The girl in purple’s outfit is something I’d wear on a night out; I wouldn’t consider it hideous since I find it wearable. 3) Nick and Michelle are too funny! They danced throughout their catwalk.

L’Jan and his friend were a riot. His friend obviously didn’t have an ugly sweater so he must’ve “borrowed” his girlfriend’s pretty little cardigan sweater. And yes, that was how he wore it until L’Jan decided to join him. He’s the birthday boy, why not?

What’s a party without Rock Band and alcohol?

1) Here is L’Jan presenting the medal for the ugliest sweater and he gave a story about how he won it from an older man of about 80 years old. Truly touching story, indeed. 2) Third place went to Mimi. You can see what she won in the pictures below. hehee 3) Nick won Second Place prize which was an action packed movie on dvd and a $25 iTunes card. 4) 1st place prize went to the guy with the little girl’s snowflake sweater that showed off his belly. Haha! What an honor! 5) The winners with L’Jan, the marvelous birthday boy!

My sweater made me look chubby! Haha Philiam’s sweater says “Bear Bottom.” Haha! This is our happy picture with the birthday boy. =)

And one more of the winner and the birthday boy! Although, it's a bit blurry...

February 2009 Before I begin with the month of February, I just wanted to let everyone know that I did not celebrate anything on the 14th of February, I haven't celebrated it since I was 18 years old and out of high school. I've always felt negative about this particular day even though I haven't exactly been single on Valentine's Day since I was 17 years old. Just wanted to make sure that everyone would understand why there won't be a post about Valentine's Day. Although, I am okay with others celebrating it, it's just not a holiday for me.

Michelle's Birthday! held at Parlare Nightclub. Woot! Before we went over to Parlare, I hung out with these people.

Afterward, we walked over to Parlare Nightclub to meet up with Michelle and Nick. We walked about 15 blocks to get there! It was my first time there and I really enjoyed it since there was no cover and its 21 and up. Woot woot! Michelle had booked the VIP section of the night, I overheard them saying it was about $300 bucks with a discount from the owners. Goodness. I'm starting to get lazy with posting now... No more commentaries. haha 1) My glorious asian glow. 2) Nick and Michelle gettin down. 3) L'Jan and his friend. I forgot his name, but at the ugly sweater party, his sweater had a cute bunny on it. haha! 4) More of the birthday girl. 5) Philliam and I, sans red beanie. 6) Nick and L'Jan 7) Philliam the narcissist 8) Nick and Michelle, the happy couple. =)

March 2009 The month I have finals and spring break! St. Patrick's Day, I had to stay in to study even though I was really tempted to go to a block party. It looked like so much fun. Downtown roads were shut down for the festivities. A lot of things happened during this month and I failed to document those events with pictures. Such as G.V. Hurley's 1 year anniversary celebration where they were having complimentary bbq and discounted beers. Yum! Although, I did document 3 nights that I went out below. March 21, 2009 One of the random downtown walk arounds that we did because we were bored and I was FINALLY DONE WITH SCHOOL!!!! ...just for a week until the new quarter starts up again. But that's okay, cause all I need is one week to chill, except I had to work. =( Ruby, Eric, Philliam, and I decided to meet up with my brothers Richie and Sunny to see how they were doing at club Cabana on K St. They seemed to have enjoyed themselves very much but they then decided to leave to walk around the Capitol with us. I work only a few steps away from the Cosmopolitan and I still haven't been there. They have a full Cabarnet show! Geez, I need to get my act together and hit up that place.

This place always looks amazing! I've taken so many pictures and see it on a daily basis, but I'm still awestruck but it's beauty.

I need to start taking better night pictures!

March 27, 2009 Another relaxing weekend before I head back to school. I finally got to hang out with my cousin! Although, she left early, and I'm always forgetting to take pictures! My boyfriend had to remind me... Ah well, there'll be more times to capture my cousin and I. This night, we went to Centro first (I forgot to take pictures), Then we headed over some place that I already forgot the name to play some pool.

Philliam Wallace got a haircut that very night! I remember being very shocked. I kept having to do a double take because I didn't think it was him. He's trying to go for a more conservaative look. Wow, what a transformation...

Ruby and I have been hanging out a lot. We've been jogging together, talking, eating, and playing tennis. We're also planning on taking a pole dancing class just for fun. Me? Pole dancing? That's complete nonsense! The funny thing is, I was the one who brought it up. =O I feel like I've completely changed within the past year... Don't really know what to think of it. I'm no longer stuck at home on weekends like I used to be which means I've been going out more. I am no longer a homebody. It's really weird. But I'm having fun and discovering the best of Sacramento. Wow, I've never discussed that with anyone and now here I am telling the entire world. =O Anyway, enough blabs about my transformation and my weight gain (check out that belly! wtf?!).

Afterwards, we went out and decided to just stand around. The boys started taking pictures. What a bunch of weirdos. o_O

Check out that melting pot in the last picture! You've got Eric whose white, Ruby Mexican, Me a mixed Asian cuisine, and Philliam the Native American. HAHA!!! Where is Ariell, the influx of African, French, Dutch, etc?? March 28, 2009 My sister and my cousin's prom night. My sister is actually wearing a vintage dress that she modified with my mom. It actually used to be my mom's dress back in the 80s. The dress turned out really good! My cousin got her black and white number from Macy's. They're both bare footed because they don't like heels. haha They look great!

March 29, 2009 Our short trip to the California Academy of Science in San Francisco. I'm a but hesitance to blog about this since there was soo many things to talk about! I love that place! Especially since they honor student discounts and triple A! Woot Woot! I may have to do a separate blog on that since I believe everyone should see a review on it before they visit. But here are just a few pictures.

Yes! I am done! This is the month of April so there ought to be more posts! Next weekend, I'll be hanging out with my cousins during Second Saturday!