weekend funness

This past weekend was fun. Of course I wished I could have done more than I had, but overall it was pretty eventful!

First of all, I got to meet Thriving Ivory on Friday!!! The band came and had our coffees, and hung out at the caffe. I was so excited (but I stayed cool) and happy. Their touring manager would come and have our coffee when he's in Salt Lake City, but this was the first time the whole band came! Ahhhhhhhh!

And I've been trying to bake a little more these days. I hope one of these days I will be able to offer what I bake at the caffe and people would like and buy them.

So on the weekend I made my first batch of chocolate cupcakes from scratch!


Chocolate cupcakes.

I practiced frosting these cupcakes with marshmallow creme. Turned out pretty good!

And on Sunday my buddy Brian and us went to have dim sum. He's heading off back to Portland this week, so John and I wanted to hang out with him and talk... and what could have been better than dum sum on a Sunday afternoon?




Mmmm... dim sum.

After dim sum and long happy talks John and I went to visit Shuan and Daena. It was the first time I went to their house. It was a lovely home! Their dogs and cats were super friendly and happy as well. Made me happy.


Margret is my new favorite cat!


Happy Schnitzel.


Cordelia by the window, and posing for the photo.

I didn't get to take pictures of Abby and Tofu, but they were both very nice, too!

A very lovely weekend indeed.

Ahh I love baking. I love friends. I love animals. I love weekends!

my first cake roll

I made my first cake roll!


Chiffon cake with a matcha green tea whipped cream center.

The chiffon cake turned out very well. Whipping the egg whites (until "soft peaks" can be formed) before adding them to the cake batter really made a difference. The cake was soft and moist. Yumminess!

I whipped the cream until whisk lines could form, and added sugar and matcha green tea, to make the matcha whipped cream. Oh my. It was tasty.


Ready to eat!

I wasn't able to roll the cake and whipped cream all round and pretty... but I guess it would take some practice before I would be able to make pretty cake rolls, but overall I'm happy with the finished product! Next time I'll make the whipped cream even more matcha-y as well.

Yay for cake rolls!

anniversary!

Hey it's John and my 9th anniversary! :D

tuna alfredo and biscuits

My mom asked me if I cooked anything special for John after his surgery. Umm... sort of. I made him tuna fettuccine alfredo and biscuits for dinner that night.





Pretty interesting "recovery" foods huh.

surgery "foot"age

John's surgery went well. Doctor Lowe and the nurses at St. Mark's are of great help. Thank you thank you a ton!

The surgery was scheduled as the first operation of the day at the surgery center. We arrived at the center at 6:30am, and John went into surgery at around 7:30am.


IV in before the surgery.

I waited outside while John was under. A nice nurse offered me coffee and cookies. I almost finished "Ambling to a Wayward Beat" (in Mandarin Chinese) by one of my favorite authors, Xuan Liu, during the surgery.

After about 45 minutes Dr. Lowe came out and talked to me, and a little bit after that I was allowed back to the recovery room to see John.

John looked sleepy, but he was still trying to say funny things (!) and the nurse seemed entertained, too!

From what I understood, the doctor cut open John's big toe, shaved off a small section of the bone, and then stuck a titanium screw in the bone. Ahhh!


Swollen foot in the surgery shoe.

One of the first things John said to me in the recovery room was, "Can you take a picture of my foot?" Umm. Sure, and hence these "foot"age.



The surgery shoe, and one of John's regular shoe.

John's doing well! He still needs to elevate his foot most of the time, but he is able to walk a little bit for 10 minutes or so at a time now.

Hope he has a speedy recovery!

foot

(pic from clipartguide)

John is having his toe/foot surgery tomorrow! Hopefully it won't hurt too much. He should be able to bend his toes to walk super fast and jump super high after the procedure.

I will (try to) play nurse... just a little bit anyhow, and I'll do my best.

We intentionally scheduled the surgery right before the long 4th of July weekend, so it wouldn't seem too long for us to close the shop (5 days including the weekend and the holiday.)

Next time you see John, remember to give him some love! :)

play

I love this fuzzy little picture. Everyone was running and playing in the backyard while I snapped the shot. It almost looks like a fuzzy painting... makes me smile when I look at it. :)

box of lychee

My friend Joyce came and said that her sister had sent her a present. She would like me to open it with her because she knew I'd appreciate the present as much as she would.


It was a box of lychee from Taiwan!

The packaging was super old-school. My grandfather was a citrus fruit farmer, and there was always these super solid "fruit boxes" in the storage at his house.

Anyhow, this box of lychee brought back so many memories!

But this was not a regular box of fruit of lychee:


It was a cute-tiny-little box!

It had all the "markings" of a traditional Taiwanese fruit box... stamps, trademarks, inspection forms, columns to fill in... you name it. It was awesome!

And what exactly was inside?


Lychee candies!

These delicious little lychee candies were soft and delicious, and they tasted EXACTLY like fresh lychee fruit. Oh my.

Ahhh. Lychee...

blood test before surgery

John had a blood test done today before his toe surgery next week.



One of his big toes has been bothering him for quite some time. It was from an old sports injury, and the doctor suggested that John takes care of it before it hurts him further.

From what I understand the doc is going to cut John's toe open, shaved off a bit of his bone, and place a little metal stick in the bone.

Poor thing. At least the surgery will help John wiggle his big toe and walk better and pain-free.

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.