this Christmas

John and I just kept it simple this year on Christmas. Didn't really go anywhere, and didn't really have anyone  over. Just the two of us, with the dogs and the cat, at home, chillin'.

We had good food and beverages, of course.

And the dogs really liked their Christmas treats, too!





And yes my dogs make funny faces when they take their treats.

Hope everyone's having a wonderful holiday season!

Easter at Victor's

Les cooked everyone a wonderful Easter dinner at Victor's! It was great food, great wine, and great company!






I made and brought a strawberry and whipped cream cake roll for dessert, and Les also got beautiful Chocolatier Blue chocolates. Yum.

Good times!

this Christmas

I am trying to finish up my little Paris trip postings so I totally skipped blogging about Christmas.

Friends and family have been asking about our Christmas, so I thought I'd post a little 'something something' about our Christmas holiday.

This Christmas John and I just took it easy... only the two of us, the dogs, and the cat. We didn't cook anything extravagant, but picked up TWO roast ducks for the holiday! I went to pick up one at Southeastern Market earlier on Christmas Eve, and after the shop closed both of us went to pick up another from Little World on our way home.

Oh my goodness the ducks were so yummy. We had some on Christmas Eve, some on Christmas Day, and I just finished the last bit last night. Yum Yum Yum.

We did cook a little, too. We made green beans with bacon, "marshmallow-ed" yam, and other veggies. My favorite was the "marshmallow-ed" yam!


Did I put enough yam in there with the marshmallows?

We also had wine that we brought back from France, and I made a pumpkin cake for dessert!

So we enjoyed yummy food, watched fun and silly shows on Netflix, and just chilled with the dogs and Jasper. It was a mellow and happy Christmas!

Oh, and the dogs each got a big bone for the holidays!

i can cook the filled rice balls now

A couple days ago it was 冬至(dong1 zhi4), which was the "arrival of winter," when most Taiwanese (and Chinese) people will cook up some glutenous rice balls 湯圓(tang yuan) to celebrate this day every year.

I love these boiled rice balls with sweet peanut or sesame filling. They are almost like little hot mochi balls... I'd eat them all winter long!

I have not had homemade rice balls for a while. I should really consider hand-making some this winter.

You can easily purchase them in packages of 10, (like these,) in the freezer sections at the Asian markets, which is very convenient for me to do. The reason I haven't been cooking them much is because I never cooked them right, so most of the time the finished rice balls are torn and the filling will be all over the pot, and the inner side of the rice balls would still be hard!

BUT! But this "arrival of winter" I read up a little bit on cooking/boiling these frozen rice balls, and the result was great!



I boiled a pot of water first. As the water came to a rolling boil, I placed the frozen rice balls into the pot, allowed the water to boil again, and turned the heat down to low, and boiled the rice balls until they all floated on the surface of the water. After the rice balls started floating, added a little bit sugar to the water, and cooked an additional couple more minutes and they were done and every little rice balls were intact! :D

These rice balls were soft and slightly chewy... perfect texture of "tang yuan" for me!

holiday muffins

Ok they are not really "holiday" muffins, but they are the almond poppy seed muffins that I have been making for the shop these days, with a holiday twist - in holiday-inspired muffin liners! Wilton has come up with a bunch of holiday cupcake liners, packaging materials, and such, and I love how festive they look! :D

sukiyaki for christmas

We made sukiyaki for Christmas!

I love sukiyaki. Every time we go to Japan I'll try to have sukiyaki for a meal during the trip. This Christmas we thought we'd have sukiyaki, because sukiyaki is indeed a festive dish, and we already had ham for Thanksgiving.

And who knows, I actually own a cast iron sukiyaki pot!

It even has the cool wood lid on it!

First we melted some butter (traditionally you'd use beef fat, but either will do) and started caramelizing some onions first. Umm. I think I put in a bit much!? But they were tasty!

Then in with the sukiyaki stock.

John got some prime beef. Yummy. I wish we could slice it as thin as the kind we had in Osaka.

Yummers!

We also put a couple different mushrooms in the sukiyaki. The skinny tall kind with little heads, and big kind called "King Trumpet Mushrooms." There were also tofu, tofu skin (age), vegetables, and udon noodles.




And how cute is the packaging for the King Trumpet mushrooms?!

I was also going to make some mochi, but didn't have enough time, so I bought some Korean rice sticks instead... they were delicious in the sukiyaki as well!

Oh my. I love sukiyaki! I think I'm going to make it again soon.

this new year

This new year is shaping up to be a good one! I've been *working on* losing a few pounds since Christmas in preparation for our trip to Taiwan at the end of January. 

"Why are you trying to lose weight?" you ask. Duh! Other than the obvious reasons, I'd like to clear up a few pounds now so when I get to Taiwan I can really enjoy all the food that I'v been missing and thinking about for the past few years. 

The other night at the radio station I played a bunch of songs that I had never played before. I thought, hey, it's a new year, and I want to try playing something different.

When I drove by some restaurants that I always see, but had never stepped in, I thought, hmm, it's a new year, and I'm going to try you some time soon.

I don't think I really have a new year's resolution, but I do want to try new things, and to be super nice to all the people and pets that I love, and be a better me. 

Happy New Year! :D

christmas

We had a calm and happy Christmas! Didn't do much... just took a day and a half off, and enjoyed spending time with each other at home.

And what did we cook up for Christmas? Sukiyaki! I found a brand new cast iron sukiyaki pot (with a wood lid) for a really good price a few months ago, and was glad to finally start using it. I shall post some pictures of the pot and the dinner later.

John got me a net book. My laptop had been acting up lately, so I was quite happy about the new computer. I am, however, still trying to get used to it.

My friend Daena drew a picture of Ginger for me. It was amazing.

My parents were generous and gave me a generous gift. They are so nice to me. Did I mention they were generous?

And apparently *someone* will give me a late Christmas gift some time soon. :D

I love how people around me are happy and content this time of the year. Yay for holidays!

thanksgiving nom nom

We had a quiet and happy Thanksgiving this year. Didn't do much, but just chilled with the dogs and watched Jasper pretend he was a dog.

We had my sister over, and made a simple dinner.


Of course we had to start with some wine when we began cooking.


Food.


Maple ham, corn bread stuffing with cranberry sausages, sweet potatoes with glazed pecans and marshmallows, and green beans with bacon.


And homemade bread.

After dinner we had some yummy dessert wine, along with some matcha-azuki cake rolls I made.

Nom nom nom.

halloween ghost cookies

I made some ghost cookies for my friends this year.


These are simple sugar cookies with royal icing.


I even made some vegan ones for my vegan friends this year!

OK I sort of cheated when I was making the vegan ones... my friend Andrew got me a vegan sugar cookie mix and vegan butter, so I made it according to the box. I didn't have regular soy milk around the house, so I used the peanut rice milk drink we had in the fridge. The cookies turned our really well! I found a vegan royal icing recipe online, which was pretty much powdered sugar, corn syrup, and water and vanilla all stirred together. The finished icing worked very well, too.

Hope everyone is having a safe and happy Halloween!

holiday baking

During the holidays I did some baking. Nothing spectacular, just simple and happy little treats.


Mini parmesan cookies. These were really cute (about the size of a nickel) and tasty!


Egg custard tarts. These didn't quite work out as well as I expected.

I was hoping to make some "egg tarts," specifictly the Portuguese ones (Pastel de nata). The ones I made were more like bread pudding. Oops. I shall try again another time.

Ahhh I need to be baking.

holiday greenies

Part of the big box of Christmas presents for our pets from Joyce's sister Irene was two boxes of Greenies! One for small dogs and the other for big dogs.

I gave the box for small dogs to Joyce when Torsion was returned to her. Torsion is the only small dog after all!

I didn't open the box for big dogs until New Year's Day, and gave them to Nuki, Yama, and a-gui as a Happy New Year treat.


Keen-y on the Greenie!


"Umm... are you sure this is safe to eat?"


"Oh! A new treat! lick lick lick. nom nom nom."

The dogs loved the presents! Thanks again to Irene and Michael!

cuties clementines

We had a wondeful holiday break! The few days off were mostly spent with our dogs and cats and around the house. I loved it!

Of course there was a lot of yummy food involved, some of which were these Cuties Clementines!



These are indeed really cute. Tiny little tangerines that are easy to peel and seedless. Can't beat that.


Some of the tangerines has a little sticker that reads "Happy Juicydays!" "Seedless Greetings!" or "Sweetest New Year!"

You may have guessed, I have been eating a lot of these little Cuties since the holidays, and thanks goodness again for California!

eve

Ahhh it's New Year's Eve. Time flies.



This year Salt Lake City planned a 3-day celebration event called "EVE." David gave John and I tickets to go to the events, but we're still deciding whether we'll head downtown tonight. It's going to be really cold and super crowded!

We'll probably just chill with the dogs and cats and welcome 2010's arrival at home.

We don't do much on the holidays, but I really enjoy this time of the year: happy people, smiles, festive tunes, snow, food, different aromas, love.

Happy New Year everyone!

christmas dinner

We had a quiet and happy Christmas dinner (on Christmas Eve actually.)



John baked a 7 lbs. ham with maple glaze. Yummer. I made mashed sweet potatoes and corn with Japanese spices, and we also had roasted garlic cloves and tomatoes, as well as buttery rolls with the dinner. Delish.

We also had some tiramisu for dessert, but it was not as good as I expected...

Most of the gifts John and I "requested" this year were for our dogs. We didn't have to get too many things for our friends and families, but we did manage to get our loved ones something they love!

EC showed us how happy she was when she opened one of her gifts:


I can't tell you what we got her for Christmas, but it made her really happy!

And of course we spend a lot of time with the dogs this weekend. I love it. Hope everyone is having a wonderful holiday!

a-gui and the christmas tree

caffe d'bolla's Annual Angel Tree for Homeless Pets is up!

When a-gui came to the store with us this morning I tried to take a few pictures of him with the tree.


This was the only pic where a-gui sat (almost) still in front of the tree.


Most of the time he just wanted to push the ornaments with his nose, or bite them.


John tried to "guide" him to look at the camera with treats, but all I could take were fuzzy pictures.

I'll try again in a couple of days.

It's been about a month since we got a-gui, and yes, he has been growing quite a bit.

thanksgiving dinner at jimmy and joanne's

Jimmy and Joanne just moved into their new house early October, and they invited us and a few other friends over for Thanksgiving dinner!


Yummy food!

I was in charge of the sweet potatoes, which I kept simple: sweet potatoes, butter, brown sugar, and marshmallows. I also made a pumpkin cake and brought some Ceylon to go with it.


The dinnger table. Very Thanksgiving-y!


Host Jimmy carved the turkey.


It was a wonderful dinner.

We also had a lot of wine. Nothing beats good friends and wine!

We played games and talked, and made room for my pumpkin cake and Ceylon.

It was a lovely Thanksgiving dinner. Thanks to Jimmy and Joanne for inviting us!

Honey the White Chocolate Bunny

The other day when I went to get supplies for the store I spotted some chocolate Easter bunnies, and I had to pick up one.



According to the box, the bunny's name was "Honey." (I wonder why.) She was a white chocolate bunny. Very delicious.

new year steamed buns

"Happy New Year" from Nuki!

We didn't do much for New Year's, but we managed to make some small steamed buns for dinner, and yes, the dogs got a couple each, too!


A small steamed bun with ginger dipping sauce.


I have yet to master the "bun-making" technique...

These steamed buns are generally tiny and juicy, and are served in a bamboo steamer, along with ginger dipping sauce. For some reason I think they are very festive... just perfect for new year's!

the pretty mother's day cake

My friend Joanne made this beautiful cake for her friends (no, not for me... even though I insisted that I was a mom because I have 3 big dogs and 2 cats...) It was so pretty I had to take a picture of it. She learned to make all the breads and cakes from other people's web sites and blogs, and she had never taken a class. It's just really cool.



Sorry I didn't make you anything, mom, but I love you lots and lots!

Happy Mother's Day!