FFF3

What a deep teabag...  :oP

Ice crea at Christina's!

Doodling on the meal place card at the Asian American Comission Unity dinner.  Here are some photos... that I just found.  I have no idea who this person is... but they were obviously there.  :oP

Just down the street... a rose so dusty pink

                       

FFF2

I kinda forgot about my five foto fun segments.  Oops.  :oP  But here goes the next installment!

He's an eraser.  I got him in LA.

Fluffers.

Tyrone Wells concert, w/ Joe Brooks

The Massachusetts State House

Our last time babysitting Miss Jade!  She has moved out West since then.  :(

                                  

Ribbon Lei!

My brother graduated from college two weeks ago!  I, sadly, missed it because we went on our anniversary cruise!  (Another post about that later!)

Since I knew I'd be missing his graduation, I wanted to send something that would let my brother know I loved him, but not enough to miss our cruise.  (Bwahah.)  :oP  At my college graduation, he forked out $40 (or was it $20...) for this pretty lei!

My college graduation

I knew real leis would be expensive, plus possibly hard to buy beforehand (cause of course if you buy it day of, they can super rip you off).  Also, he's a boy so maybe he wouldn't appreciate it as much.  :oP  (He'd probably appreciate a lei made out of dollar bills = $40.) 

When I was pondering this issue, Penga was posting about DIY ribbon leis, which was a PERFECT idea!  She has a couple versions but the two-colored puffy ribbon lei was my favorite.  She first posted about it here, then here.

So I set off to Michael's to buy yards of ribbons!  Though Penga suggested 50-60 yards of ribbon, it took me 100 yards and like... 10 hours.  :oP  Perhaps I am not so talented with the DIY-ing and such.  It definitely got faster as I got the hang of it.

Blue and yellow for UC!

See Penga's post for the tutorial!  Thoughts and tips I would add are:

1) Use embroidery floss/thread!  I started with regular thread and I was pretty much scared it would break the whole time.  I imagined it breaking on the day of my brother's graduation, especially  under the strain of other leis and neck ornaments.  I ended up transferring two whole spools I did on the regular thread to the embroidery floss.

2) It helped to anchor the starting bead to something to work with in the beginning.  Catch it on something... tape it down... whatever.  It helped a lot.  (I was so confused in the beginning when the bead was moving around and flopping all abouts!)

3) Penga seems to alternate each color like every two loops.  I did 8 per color and I don't think I can tell the difference.  Working with one color for 8 loops/passes kept my sanity a little better then every other.  Do whatever works for you, but in the pictures above --- 8 loops/passes per color still looks pretty intermingled (in terms of color).

I am super proud of it!  :D  And wanted to keep it.  haha.

Here's a "make-up" grad picture since my grandparents couldn't make it to his graduation at Santa Cruz.  And I thought my grandpa looked hilarious with the cap.  :D  My mom made the yellow/gold ribbon lei my grandpa is sporting (courtesy of another Penga tutorial) and you can see my handiwork on my grandma!  :)

Congrats Alvin!!  :D

                             

Life in Pictures - FFF

I've been terrible at blogging but I've been good about taking pictures.  Sort of.  I kinda joined the Instagram bandwagon.  AND I LIKE IT.  :]  So here are some life adventures.  In five foto fun installments.  :]

Random dinner (date night?  How do you distinguish eating out from date nights now?  :oP) at Russell House Tavern.  Loooove the garlic alioli for the fries.

Our Costco sells ALCOHOL NOW.  Whoo hoo!!  It's in a caged area and I think it's like... a third party seller or something.  (Different from how it's done in California!)  A bunch of wines and a handful of beers by the case!

We got to babysit this munchkin!  She was educated in piano playing and programming while at our house.  :D

She's so cute.  :D  CHUBBY LEGS.

Boston Mayor Menino -- on Tenants Rights.  This is what I do for work sometimes.

Stay tuned for the next installment of five foto fun!  :oP

                    

Happy two years!

I've been a very, very bad blogger.  >_<  But you should SEE the backlog of posts I have... in my head.  :)


Today's worth posting about, I suppose.  :)  Can you guess?  :oP

Can you believe it's been TWO years?  :)  Sometimes it feels longer, sometimes it feels shorter.

Happy Anniversary, Tim!  :)

                     

Earl Grey Tea Cookies

Yesterday we hosted a "Pride & Prejudice: Tea & Crumpets" tea party with our community group (aka Bible study). On a Friday night. :oP It was actually all Tim's idea. No kidding. :)

It was fabulous! People brought the yummiest desserts! I learned what crumpets are... English muffins! Or as wiki puts it, "a savory griddle cake." And that didn't seem very fun at 7:30pm on a Friday night, so we went with cookies and cakes and scones and other lovelies. :)

The spread! Tartlets, chocolate cake balls, cheesy scones, rice krispy treats, digestives!, coffee cake, and cookies. And tea of course!

Earl Grey Tea cookies

I made Trader Joe's Cinnamon Crumb Cake (so easy, so good!) and Earl Grey Tea Cookies! The tea cookies were a big hit and I was quite happy by how they turned out. Except they were a bit salty. And I just realized I had used salted butter instead of unsalted. Which explains everything. Which is great because that means when I make them correctly they will taste even better!!!

 

(Taken with Instagram)

Earl Grey Tea Cookies (by theKitchn)

1 cup all purpose flour

1/4 cup sugar
1/4 cup confectioners' sugar
1 tablespoon Earl Grey tea leaves*
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
1 teaspoon water
1/2 cup unsalted butter

Preheat oven to 375°F. Pulse together all the dry ingredients in a food processor until the tea leaves are pulverized.

Add vanilla, water, and butter. Pulse together until a dough is formed. Form the dough into a log onto a piece of wax or parchment paper. Wrap the paper around and roll the log smooth. Freeze now, or chill for at least 30 minutes.

When chilled, slice the log into 1/3 inch thick pieces. Place on baking sheets and bake until the edges are just brown, about 12 minutes. Let cool on sheets for 5 minutes, then transfer to wire racks.

Makes two dozen.

*Note: theKitchn said they got better flavor from ripping open teabags for the tea leaves than from buying more expensive loose leaf. I've only made this once, with Twinings Earl Grey Tea bags, so I don't have a comparison but I thought it turned out great with the tea bags.

-----------------------------------------------------------------

I am quite excited to try this with other teas... green tea... chai tea... oh the possibli-teas! heh heh heh. :D

What kind of tea cookies are your favorite? Or if you haven't tried any, what flavor do you think you'd like?

                

Chocolate Chocolate-Chip Muffins

I was all ready to post this but then I was too busy to pull pictures off my camera so this is a bit late! But here goes the first time I try making muffins.

Up in these New England parts, there is a state-wide/civic holiday called Patriots' Day (this year it fell on April 16), which commemorates the anniversary of the Battles of Lexington and Concord (the first battles of the American Revolutionary War. However, because *I think* my org gets Lunar New Year day off... we don't get Patriots' Day. :(

So I decided some chocolate chocolate-chip muffins were in order to start the week off while everyone else will be enjoying their day off (and/or running the Boston Marathon!)

In blog-speak: the cast of characters!

Mix the dry ingredients together, the wet together, then mix them both together!

Then pour into your lined muffin pan

(This one taken with Instagram)

Chocolate Chocolate-Chip Muffins (from the Food Network, Nigella Lawson)
(Never heard of her or seen her show!)

Ingredients

• 1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 2 tablespoons best quality cocoa powder
• 3/4 cup superfine sugar*
• 3/4 cup semisweet chocolate chips, plus 1/4 cup for sprinkling
• 1 cup milk
• 1/3 cup plus 2 teaspoons vegetable oil
• 1 egg
• 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

* I didn't know what superfine sugar was (it's exactly what it sounds like), so I put in regular granulated sugar. Though some further research/googling AFTER I stuck the muffins into the oven... you can make supefine sugar by putting regular graduated sugar in a food processor.


Directions

Line muffin pan with baking/paper cups.

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F.

Put the flour, baking powder, baking soda, cocoa, sugar, and 3/4 cup of the chocolate chips into a large bowl. Pour all the liquid ingredients into a measuring cup. Mix the dry and wet ingredients together. (Nigella says a lumpy batter makes the best muffins.) Spoon into the prepared muffin cups. Sprinkle the remaining 1/4 cup chocolate chips on top and then bake for 15-20 minutes or until the muffins are dark, risen and springy. (Make sure to check them between 15 and 20 minutes.)
--------------------------------------------

I thought they turned out okay.  I don't know why but I always get slightly coned shaped muffins!  I think it's because I tend to fill them more than I should.  :oT  (There are only 12 muffin slots so it's not like I can squeeze an extra one like I can on a cookie sheet for cookies!)  It was also unfortunate the first chocolate in "Chocolate Chocolate-Chip Muffins" didn't really live up to its chocolatey-ness.  The cocoa powder made them brown but it didn't really taste like a chocolate muffin.  They were also kind of... not sweet enough but it's most likely totally because I didn't use "superfine sugar."  They weren't hard at all and I think I'll have to try making muffins again sometime!

What are your favorite kinds of muffins?