cake boss

I've been watching Cake Boss on Netflix these days, and it's seriously addicting!


(photo from TLC)

The series is a reality show on an awesome and celebrated cake artist Buddy Valastro and his family/crew in their 100-year-old bakery (Carlo's Bake Shop) in New Jersey. I love it!

The only problem with having a Cake-Boss-a-thon is that I want cakes more often and I believe I HAVE to learn to decorate cakes now.

cute kitties

Every time I go to Petsmart to pick up treats for our pets I'd go and check out the cats inside the adoption center. There are always cute and really lovable kitties there. Some are abandoned, others are strays, and still others are former feral cats. There cats are all now under the care of different shelters or rescue groups, and waiting to find a forever home.

Even though we cannot take more animals at this point, I enjoy going to see these little guys, play with them, and sending them happy energies.

They are so cute! This last time I was there I saw a bunch of cute little kittens, too!


Awww. Stop staring at me!


Mom and babies.


Cute little guy.

I say if your situation allows, go adopt a kitty (or two)!

care package from japan

The mail lady came, handed me the little pile of mail, and said, "You've got something really nice today!"



She was right! It was a lovely package from my dear friend Chikako in Japan!



Chikako sent me a cute Melody notebook, an awesome pouch she made herself, a couple lovely hair pins (also made by herself,) a cutest cell phone charm (again, made by Chikako!) a few photographs she took, and a beautiful letter she wrote me. I not only love everything she sent, but I also love the little things and details she added to the package.

To Chikako: I've missed you, Chi. Thank you for thinking of me, and thank you for the lovely gifts. I know you've been through a lot in the past few months... but I also know good things are going to happen! You are always in my thoughts. xxoo!

pride weekend

It was Pride weekend in downtown Salt Lake City, and the festival was at the Washington Square pretty much across from our building, so to show support for Pride, Bob (our landlord) put up colorful banners!



And what comes with the Pride weekend? Party with Les (and the gang) of course! It's always so fun for John and I to go to his parties!

Les prepared lots of delicious cold foods:




Mmmmm. So tasty. I made some spicy sesame cold noodles to bring to the party. I hope our friends were not scared of the spiciness of these noodles! (I added a spoonful of this cool chili sauce, and then decided to add another... :p)

Everything was so tasty, and on top of that, we had lots of yummy drinks: different wines, and mojitos and cocktails Victor made us!


Victor's mojito... made "from scratch" with fresh mint leaves!


A delicious cocktail by Victor.

We ate, drank, talked, and laughed. It was a very lovely evening.

As John and I were leaving the party, the sky turned dark and gray, and the clouds started gathering above the city. I had to take a picture of it because the sky looked awesome (and slightly scary!)


Look at the clouds!

It was a totally awesome weekend.

bamboo shoot stew

I was at the Asian market and saw tall cans of bamboo shoots. Normally I got the short and stubby bamboo shoot tips (the ones that look like little pyramids,) but these ones in the tall cans seemed to be whole bamboo shoots of a skinner variety. I bought a can out of curiosity.

Couple days ago I wanted to make my soy sauce stew with chicken and quail eggs, and decided to put in the whole can of these bamboo shoots.



I put in soy sauce (both regular and dark), rice wine, water, rock sugar, chives, five-spice, couple whole star anise, red peppers, and a spice/herb pouch, and cook everything in the slow cooker on high for about 5 hours.



I love how the bamboo shoots turned out! John did think the bottoms of the bamboo shoots got a bit rough, though. They were, however, exactly how I thought bamboo shoots ought to be. Maybe next time I will cut the whole bamboo shoots into sections.

Gonna go to the market and get a couple more cans of the bamboo shoots to add to my stew. I think I'll get the short kind this time, though.

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!



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!

yay for the new blender

John got me a new blender!



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


Inside of blender.

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

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!



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!


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


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!


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


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!


Oh and happy birthday to Victor!

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!

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:


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!