Monday, May 31, 2010

florentinas!

I love trying different treats from different places. These days some of my favorite cookies are from Mexico! I found these Florentinas the other day and I'm loving them!

florentinas


I got the strawberry Florentinas. There were also caramel ones on the shelf, but I'll wait until next time to get them. These are like little strawberry tarts or pies with slightly sticky filling. They are sweet, but not too sweet... they are tasty!

Wednesday, May 26, 2010

yay for the new blender

John got me a new blender!

cuisinart blender


It's the SmartPower Premier 600-Watt Blender from Cuisinart.

cuisinart blender
Inside of blender.


It's simple, powerful, and very sturdy! I love it. Yay!

Monday, May 24, 2010

victor's birthday

As one of Victor's birthday celebration, Les invited John and I to go join them for a gathering at their friend Jon's place.

Of course Les was cooking and making delicious food for all of us!

food from chef Les!


Oh my! There were seared scallops, spinach with garlic, lamb chops with chorizo and beans, and beef tenderloin with Porcini mushrooms and watercress puree as the main courses, and lots of delicious wines!

seared scallops
Would you look at these super delicious seared scallops?! Les makes the BEST scallops ever!


food from chef Les!
Another shot of the beautiful feast, and the madelein "flower" I made at the bottom left corner.


The wine selections were amazing, and I also had the best port so far in my life last night!

Jon's kitchen
Ahh a beautiful and open kitchen with a nice view and happy people.


wine cellar
And of course there was a temperature-control wine cellar in the kitchen!


We ate, talked, and laughed, and also had chocolate cake and my madeleins for dessert. Good life.

Thanks to Les for inviting us. We got to meet a few new people, too!

victor
Oh and happy birthday to Victor!

Thursday, May 20, 2010

it was almost like ueno park

Spring in Salt Lake City is nice. It almost feels like an exotic city of some sort, with the magnolia popping up everywhere, and the tulips, and the daffodil... so beautiful!



Every time I see the magnolia trees while the flowers are all over them, I'd think of Ueno Park and its beautiful sakura flowers in the spring!

But then it's also getting warmer and warmer by the day, and the flowers start to go away. What comes next is the heat soon. Ahhh!

Monday, May 17, 2010

slightly elevated food bowls

We've been trying to find elevated dog food bowls for our dogs for a while. There are quite a few kinds out there, but most of them are the two-compartment ones (which would take up too much room for us since we have three dogs!) They also get a bit price-y.

John shopped around for a while, and decided to re-construct our own using easy-to-find materials, and this is what we came up with:

We use these IKEA plant pots for the elevated base:



And a simple food bowl:


(Product photos from IKEA.com)

This is how it came out:
yama


The dogs seem to like the new creation of their "food stand!"

Another good thing about this food bowl/stand coolness is that you can stack the bowls, and the bases, for easy storage, when the dogs are finished eating. I love it!