iphone dump

yep, it's that time again! but this time, it's been over a year since my last iphone dump. here's the past year according to my iphone.


about half the adhesives i have at school.


oxymoron.
(sorry, vegetarians! while i'm not a huge meat-eater and love me a garden or black bean burger once in awhile, i'm not a fan of meat substitutes when there really is no subsitute.)


you might want to return that ill-fitting hat.


yep, that he does.
(spotted while shopping for a 1 year old's birthday. i'm a nerd that always gives books.)


when it was our studio's turn to throw the weekly happy hour.
yes, you see PBR, tecate, mgd, miller lite, and even steel reserve.
we're klassy, obvs.


JC trapped by the adorable puppy.


jason mraz at the hollywood bowl.
the bear and i enjoyed the garden box very much.
probably mostly because of the chairs and food we brought.


ziggy the best labradoodle.


love the shadow on the juror's shirt.


my mexican wrestler banana.


an oh-nay-zee (onesie for the rest of you) that the bear and i "designed" for our angels fans parents-to-be friends.
please ignore the off-centeredness.


even dear old blue the long-haired dachsund found structures class to be boring.


thanksgiving pie shuffle at school.
school bought 500+ pies for every student, faculty, and staff member.
you could keep your pie or donate it to charity.


more pie shuffle pie.


building a bridge out of spaghetti.
yes, there are some limp noodles on the ground as well.
since we're mature grad students, we flung said wet noodles at each other while building the bridge.


part of my scaled figure army.


the night the bear and i found out that china is the world's largest beer producer. because budweiser has breweries there. don't worry. we didn't drink budweiser at father's office.
i wanted to try the "unibroue terrible" just for its name, but they were out.


two snuffly bulldogs at a friend's birthday bbq.


just chillin' in a hallway at school.
this is pair of random panties in a public place #2 i have encountered.
ick.


saw some of neutra's amazing drawings and forward-thinking work at the central library.


drank quite a few of urth caffe's green tea lattes.
although most were out of paper cups back at my desk.


this asian "tour group" was taking pictures of us WHILE we were in a crit. HUH?
we were puzzled. and felt like zoo animals.


so i took a picture of a guy taking a picture of us.


a city of the future, powered by potatoes.


library carrels transformed for the exhibit that the above potato stuff was in.
yep, life-size cut-outs of each of the architects' whose work was featured.


beautiful arrangement of california poppies my stepdad's boss brought him.
who woulda thunk those bendy, scraggly things often seen from the freeway could be so pretty?


one of the bear's work vendors gave him a $20 visa gift card.
so of course we went on a shopping spree at harbor freight.
no, we didnt' buy the huge wrench although i was tempted to buy it as wall decor.
we did, however, score two bagfuls of stuff with just $20.
the loot included 500 pairs of earplugs, a level, calipers, a telescoping magnet, and i can't even remember what else.


a lovely spot of tea (and ranunculus. and water. and maybe a warm goat cheese salad. oh and maybe a bacon and maple biscuit.) at huckleberry.

welcome pauses

• san francisco
• jason mraz concert
• l.a. eyewear sale and lunch at m cafe with school buddies
• "working" at home on a day when i don't have class until 7 pm
• last night--pumpkin carving, treat gorging, wine and cider drinking party at gramps' warm, cozy bungalow. i seriously felt like i was at grandma's house, welcoming in fall somewhere that has four seasons, in an all-american tv show circa 1950something. vinyl on the turntable, hot spiced apple cider in the most amazing 1950s villeroy & boch china teacups, rich red wine in austrian crystal goblets, trader joe's hors d'oeuvres galore, homemade potato leek soup and baked goodies, and absolutely no pretension. the hilarious company also helped. as did the girl with the infectious laughter.

hopefully i'll blog the above with pictures eventually. eventually.

stock + cake

remember the lobster rolls and the cartoon version? well, i had saved the shells to someday make a lobster stock. the someday actually came quicker than i thought. there's a risotto recipe i want to try soon, and it called for fish stock. since i couldn't find any at the store, i figured i'd use my lobster shells and make some. i used this recipe. kind of. sort of. i forgot a few things and didn't follow the quantities exactly, but i ended up with some delicious stock anyway.


boiling forever.
in the hot, hot heat.


i don't have cheesecloth or a chinois for proper straining.
oh well.

it was father bear's birthday last wednesday, and the bear and i had planned to go have dinner with the bearents yesterday. so i decided it would be a great time to try out smitten kitchen's best birthday cake. problem is, the bearents don't really like sweets. fruit = dessert to them. so i decided to make mini cakes. 4" round ones, to be exact. plus mini = CUUUUUUUUTE!!! eee!


butter paper.
the best way ever to grease pans evenly.


i overfilled my pans for the first batch.
no worries, as the bear enjoyed the dome that i scrapped
to get a nice, flat cake.
like a muffin top.

i made two kinds of frosting. why? well, i wanted to try the bear's favorite yellow cake + chocolate buttercream combo, and the monkey is allergic to chocolate (one was for her as a thank you for hosting us for dinner). both started with butter.


i love butter.


lemon buttercream.


frosting dropcloths.
AKA wax paper.


crooked cake layer.


see? dropcloths are totally necessary.


frosted and confetti-ed.


monkey + mr. monkey seemed to have enjoyed it.
[photo by weezermonkey]


dry poo.
i mean, cocoa powder + butter.


even goopier poo.



chocolate frosting crumb coat.
the chocolate was a little stiffer and easier to work with.


final coat of chocolate + confetti.


plop.
in the box.


then each got a tulle bow.
tulle is very forgiving for those (like me) that can't tie pretty bows.
[photo by weezermonkey]

what did i think of the recipe? too dense and eggy. but amazingly moist, especially when stored overnight in tupperware. however, i like those spongy, light asian bakery cakes with barely sweetened whipped cream as frosting. the bear loved it, and he's my litmus test for yellow cake as he loves the duncan hines and betty crocker kind. yay! oh, and the recipe for batter makes A LOT of batter. a lot. i made four 4"x3" tall minis that i split in half to make into the mini layer cakes and then another, thin 9" round layer that got frozen for the bear's birthday coming up. oh, and i didn't use her frosting recipe. i used some out of this book that skims gave me awhile back.

i have one week and one day until school starts. crying big, crocodile tears.

grainy

in the potatobear lair, we have quite the stockpile of white rice. we have both the short grain variety and jasmine, long grain variety. i know it's not the best for you, but it is our staple grain of choice. to switch it up, i got some quinoa with the intention of making a texas caviar-like quinoa salad. luckily, someone else had already come up with a recipe.


summery, delicious, fluffy, proteiny.

oh, and i served it with japa-cana tuna. too bad the tuna was just alright in quality and frozen. the recipe, however, is great. the sweet maple syrup and bite of the wasabi balanced each other well.

i also tried smitten kitchen's almond-vanilla rice pudding, which is made with arborio rice instead of the usual rice. wan, again, inspired me.


honestly, i just really wanted to use up some of this expensive madagascar bourbon pure vanilla bean paste (whew) i bought back when i had real income. plus i had exactly a 1/2 cup of arborio rice left in an old package in the pantry.

unfortunately, i'm not a huge fan of almond extract. i'll use a third of what the recipe calls for next time.


otherwise, it was delicious, rich, and creamy. i'll have to try again soon.

foodish miscellany

lilcee bestowed upon me some lovely gifts from paulette. beautiful. and delicious. these macarons are not delicate in terms of flavor (or color saturation...LOVE the bold colors). i had fun trying to guess the flavors while eating and before looking them up on the website.

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beige on beige on beige

i baked some peanut butter chocolate chip cookies [via tastespotting]. they were delicious but rather crumbly and crumb-y. lucky for me and my food baby that needs to disappear, the bear's friend ate about half of the batch while over one night.


the fork imprints + added chocolate = yum, visually and taste-wise

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bah. point and shoot.

brunched here for lilcee's birthday. pricey, but very delicious brunch buffet with sushi, amazing dessert bar, lamb, prime rib, chawan mushi, deviled eggs, cheese, potatoes, sausage, soba...and the list goes on. all served in a rather genteel, quiet, yet unpretentious atmosphere.

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lunched at julienne's for vasey's birthday.



there was a wait, but it was definitely worth it. nicely sized portions (not too big, not too small). food that we didn't expect much from due to its looks (a pale green broccoli mustard soup, the below lemon meringue tart) surprised by being extra delicious.


deceptively blah.
very good lemon meringue.
not too tart, not too sweet.
cool, fluffy.
especially perfect pastry.

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the most expensive homemade meal


inspired by wan
lobster rolls on light brioche buns [both via smitten kitchen]

the bear wanted to buy the jetblue all-you-can-jet pass. maine was on his list of destinations as he's got a cousin there. i've also got a good college friend, gel, there, who i'd love to visit. alas, we decided to be responsible employees/students and not jet-set around the country. so instead, i settled for the much cheaper option (but expensive for dinner at home) of making lobster rolls at home. i've never had one in maine. the bear has. these were pretty dang delicious.

first, the brioche. yeast and i are not friends. let's just say i took a cooking class in college in the nutritional sciences department (the fancy schmancy hotel school one that taught knife skills, how to cut up a whole chicken, etc. never fit in my schedule). one day, we worked with yeast. class time was limited. i killed the yeast the first time with water that was too hot. then i ruined another batch by using water that was too cold. and then class was over. and i had no bread. anyway, i decided to get a proper candy/deep frying thermometer to exact the science and face my nemesis head-on and well-armed. enough jibba jabba (the bear's tom tom gives him directions in mr. T's voice. mmm yeaaaah.)


mise en place
pretty simple, non?
hee hee hee honh honh honh!
[baking bread brings out the little mermaid french chef in me, i guess.]


the yeast starting to work.
beaten egg.
flours and salt.
eventually all stirred together.


dough that probably could have been kneaded longer.
kneading is fun, yo. and a good workout.
you can also see my "dough cutter" to the right.


mini dough.
should have been smoother and elastic-ier. ah well


to show how much of the bowl it took up to begin with.

meanwhile, back at the lobster ranch...

steamed!
mmm yeah. fancy, expensive cameras can't help user error blur.
anyway, the lobster and its drippings in the steam water smelled so salty, briny, ocean-y, meaty.


chop, chop, chop over $20 worth of lobster meat.
a measly pound.
(yeah, i halved the lobster roll filling recipe. :(. major sadness.)
no more lobster at home until i find it on sale somewhere.


mix, mix, mix.
i added more celery and lemon than the recipe called for.
we like crunchy and tangy.

an hour and a half or so later, the dough monster grew. a lot.

the dough has gas. see the bubble holes? tee hee.
oh, and it stuck to my non-greased saran wrap. oops.


and...from it's no-longer-as-svelte side.


after de-gassing [sniggle] and dividing up the dough.
my "dough cutter" (rubber spatula) didn't work as well as my hands.


oops. too close together.
butt buddies.
yeah yeah, they're not perfectly round, either.
save the critcism for my craft for when i go back to school.
i'll get plenty of it then anyway.


golden!
don't mind the blob of four buns to the right.
nothing a little siamese quadruplet surgery couldn't fix.


someone got a bit anxious.
you would have, too, if you smelled our house.


the [delicious] end.