MSC - Banana Walnut Cupcakes

I love banana bread so when the MSC group had this cupcake for the September bonus challenge, I knew I had to make these cupcakes.

Since I did not have any pecans on hand, walnuts would have to do for my cupcakes. I actually made the first batch two weeks ago. I also made the caramel buttercream frosting and ended up using the frosting on ONE cupcake - the one that I gave to the husband to eat. This was the first time I made caramel and I was pretty impressed with myself as the caramel actually came out, CARAMEL! :P The first round of whisking the egg whites was a no-go. I whisked for a good ten minutes (after dissolving sugar with egg whites over the stove) but my mixture never got fluffy or curdled so I ended up tossing that away. On the second round - I hand whisked over the stove for 15 minutes and that seemed to do the trick. Afterwards - I poured the mixture in my electric mixer and added the caramel. The consistency came out pretty well but I must say - it tasted like butter. The husband did not really care for the caramel buttercream so we opted to eat all the cupcakes without any frosting. Still delicious! :D

Since we were going to celebrate my dad's birthday this past weekend and I had a lot of bananas left, I decided to make another batch for my parents to take home. This time I made whipped cream and added banana chips. Verdict: My parents loved the whipped cream frosting but they thought the cupcakes were a bit sweet. Then again...I think my parents find most American baked goods and desserts more on the sweet side so maybe their comments don't count. :P
A little over a dozen cupcakes for my parents to take home to share with their friends. :)

Day 102 - White Chocolate Cake

Cake to celebrate the husband's birthday. :D

Day 101 - Chicken Eggroll

Panda Express for dinner. Chicken eggroll to be specific.

Day 100 - To Decorate or Not?

Look what I got over the weekend! Now I can learn how to decorate all those cupcakes! :D

Day 99 - Sunday is Leisure Time

We sipped our iced mochas while the people with the paper bags and shopping carts passed by us. There were a few parents with their kids but the majority were couples spending quality time together on such a beautiful Sunday afternoon.

I caught up on my reading while the husband took a nap. Life. Simply. Uncomplicated.

Day 98 - Reflections

As I approached the driveway to visit my grandparents, I am brought back to numerous encounters I have had with them throughout my life. The times were quick and stifling. My maternal grandfather was a formidable man where appearance was very important and old-schooled in many of his thoughts. My maternal grandmother was a lioness with a capital "L." But that was the yesteryears.

Today - they lie quietly listening to me as I update them on my parents' lives and ask them to wish my loved ones well, all the while the windchimes chime a lulllaby for them.....

Day 97 - Zzzzz on Zimzala

The clock strucked 6:15 p.m. It was time to leave the office. I grabbed my purse, searched for my keys and left the office. The weekend officially started. I rushed home, changed to a nice blue summer dress I bought from BCBG and off the husband and I went to start our dinner date.

The evening was beautiful. It was clear and the temperature was a perfect 70 degree or so. Our destination was Huntington Beach.
I made reservations for 7:30 p.m. at Zimzala, a restaurant on OC Restaurant Week's list.

Our dinner started with the server setting down a candle votive. How romantic! ;)

The server brought over a light appetizer that we did not order. That was nice of him. It was chicken salad with yogurt on a crouton. Yummy and refreshing!
And then the salad arrived. Buttercup lettuce (probably my all time favorite lettuce), carmelized pecans, sliced peaches with sherry vinaigrette. The salad was so-so for me. I could have used more dressing. The husband ordered a stone oven flatbread that was equivalent to a pizza. That was so-so too.

For the entree the husband ordered pan-roasted wild salmon. This plate was decent.

My entree was called Morroccan chicken tagine. I have never liked couscous and yet I still wanted to give it a try. OK...confirmed. I still don't like couscous.

At $ 40 a person - I was disappointed with this restaurant. The waiter was friendly and attentive but the bleh food was disappointing. My apologies for the lack of description. I was debating whether to even blog about Zimzala or not...

We left the restaurant and stopped by the grocery store at 10 p.m. at night where I decided to take a few shots of my local grocery store. Fall is just around the corner! Oh beautiful colors of orange, gold, mahogany or maroon - how I love thee!

An apple a day keeps the doctor away. My favorites are Gala and Granny Smith. Do you know your apple?

I don't get the hype with organic food but I guess whatever floats people's boats.

When I first saw this bag - I thought I had scored! Fifty cent bananas! Doh! It was 50 cents off. Blah! Yes, I bought the bag. I needed the bananas.

Yeah to Haagen-Dazs for making green tea ice cream! Score! There was only one left! Mine! Mine! All Mine!

Day 96 - Shabu for Dinner and Dessert Is A Must!

Tonight I celebrated a belated birthday with some girlfriends. We celebrated by dining at the new California Shabu Shabu in Costa Mesa, CA. There are only a few places I like shabu shabu and this is one of them. It's all in the sauce. For those who've had shabu shabu, I know you're thinking, how can you go wrong with shabu?! Believe me, you can. I disliked shabu the first time I tried it and did not go back for several years. It wasn't until ECA and PJ introduced the husband and I to California Shabu Shabu that I realized there was good and bad shabu. I've been converted. Thank you ECA and PJ!

I did not take pictures of dinner. :( Now that I think about it, I should have. There were a few eye candy around and I don't mean chocolate. ;P OK - two eye candy. One was about 30 something and another was about 20 something (too young but nevertheless still eye candy).

After dinner...we went to cefiore for some yummy yogurt and of course, for "girl time." It was wonderful to catch up on everyone's life. :)

Day 95 - Chess Anyone?

I have a fascination with oversized objects. Ever seen the oversized spoon and fork in those Pottery Barn catalogs? LOVE THEM! I think oversized items create depth and interest to the everyday items that we take for granted.

Here are my oversized decorations. Chess anyone?

Day 94 - My Jogging Companion

I admit...I've been bad. I have not jogged for awhile. I've gone to the gym on and off. I've jogged a few times since the half marathon but it has not been consistent. However, when I do jog, the husband is my jogging buddy but I also have a jogging companion called the iPod.

Note to self - must charge the iPod. I took the iPod with me on the camping trip and it never got played. Why not? Because I didn't charge it before I left my place. I know...I am lame like that. :S

MSC - Zucchini-Spice Cupcakes

I was plesantly surprised about a week ago when I received an email from Betty with Eat My Cupcake that I was admitted into the Martha Stewart Cupcake Club! Yah! Let the baking begin!

My first baking assignment in the Martha Stewart Cupcake Club was zucchini-spice cupcakes (picked out by Tracey from Tracey's Culinary Adventures). As this was my first baking assignment, I had this vision that I would create this awesome cupcake to display and take pictures. Unfortunately - I ran out of time. I never realized how many ingredients are in these recipes!

The recipe asked for freshly grated nutmeg! Where do you find fresh nutmeg and how do you grade nutmeg? I went to Whole Foods and the grocery gal showed me a bottle with whole dried nutmeg. I bought the bottle and ended up grounding the nutmeg. I also cut down the sugar to about 1 and 3/4 cups and was perfect with the cream cheese frosting. If I wasn't using any frosting - I think I would have kept the sugar to 2 cups.

Overall....I really enjoyed this recipe and would use it again! :)
And I promise to do a better job of photographing my cupcakes from now on. :P

Day 93 - Farmville

I received an invitation to become a farmer on Facebook from PM's mom more than a week ago.

Life. Has. Not. Been. The. Same.

For the past week, I have been busy cultivating and harvesting my farm, nurturing it with love and attention, hoping it will thrive. (Gleefully rubbing hands together) I have plans for my farm. :D

Day 92 - She's Looking for a Recipe

This was the best picture I could take of #3 while she was sniffing around in my magazine collection. I think she's trying to look for a doggie biscuit recipe.

Day 91 - My Sad Looking Coffee Plant

Do you ever have those plants where you wished it would just either 1) Kick the bucket or 2) Thrive? Well...I do. I bought this coffee plant more than 2 years ago and I am still trying to figure it out til this day. I see new life on top but it's not exactly thriving but it's also not exactly dying. And I continue to water it every week, holding onto hope that one day it can reach for the light and thrive.

Day 90 - Ben & Jerry's

Can you guess which one belongs to me and which one belongs to the husband?
Psssss....mine is the smaller one! Lately, the husband has been craving for Ben and Jerry's Cherry Garcia. I've never been particularly fond of Cherry Garcia. I find it to be too sweet for me but he loves the stuff AND I am the one who has a sweet tooth! Go figures!

Day 89 - Beware! Killer Dachshunds!

Metea got this for me when she attended the Gilroy garlic festival some time ago. How sweet is she to be thinking about me?!

I haven't had a chance to initiate my vegetable garden but it's in the works and when I do have that garden, this sign shall go there. :D

Day 88 - A Little Sunny D

A little Sunny D for some tasty Vitamin C. :)

Day 87 - Spacing Out

I was lying down in one of those yoga moves, had #1 hanging on my legs and th0ught....hm....this is an interesting perspective to shoot her from but she wasn't really having it. I couldn't get a good enough of a clear shot so this will have to do.

Day 86 - Pismo Beach Camping 2009 - Day 3

Aww....as the saying goes...all good things must come to an end and camping was no exception. The day started out early with breakfast being made by our camping chefs. We gathered around the campfire in the early morning for the final moments of Camping 2009. Then we started to pack and off we went...back to civilization.


Pismo Beach - Thank you for the fun times and I will miss you for your famous sand dunes even though I had a hell of time with my ATV and your racoon families.

Day 85 - Pismo Beach Camping 2009 - Day 2

Day 2 started with breakfast. Breakfast took forever just because of the number of people in our group and the menu selection. We had so much variety. Note to self - maybe decrease the choice selection down the road?

Because breakfast took longer than we anticipated, we left for the ATV tour later than we wanted to but it was o.k. We were camping and had all the time in the world. I mean, we could be at the campgrounds...eating....

There was a minor problem with getting parental approval for a 17 year old in our party but that was fixed. And then we were on our way to the Sand Dunes. I must back up a bit, there were ten of us who went ATV-ing while the other eight went hiking. So the ten of us paid, sat through 8 minutes of safety training. OH YES! There is safety training for the operation of an ATV. What we learn from that training? Don't break anything or we will pay. There was a charge for everything and anything.

After completion of the training, we loaded up to a truck driven by a 20 or 30 something man with a Southern accent entertaining us with his wild stories. Somewhere along the way - I was a bit fearful of life. All I remembered was him telling us that his wife bought a horse for $ 5K. (Um...I wanted to ask him how he was able to afford a horse but I was concerned that he would take it the wrong way so I kept my mouth shut.)

Then he dropped us off here.
And here is me! ATV-ing on the sand dunes is a bitch!!! We paid for two hours and I was ready to go back after 30 minutes. I've been ATV-ing when we were in Bora Bora but geez...I was not ready for the sand. I. KEPT. ON. GETTING. STUCK! And then I had to deal with the stinkeye from the husband. REAL. FUN. It was not until more than an hour into the tour that I got the hang of riding the ATV.

And then we headed back and of course...started eating.

Day 84 - Pismo Beach Camping 2009 - Day 1

The trip started at 6:30 a.m. The husband and I woke up to get ready and pack. My friend also came over as we were carpooling over to ECA's place. We arrived at ECA's place at 8:00 a.m.

Oh boy...we were not ready. The party was loading the camping gear and there were A LOT of stuff plus bodies! Somewhere along the way - we realized there was no way we were going to be able to fit 16 people and 2 furkids in three vehicles. Luckily, Metea and Cowman were able to take their car.

At about 1 p.m., we arrived at Pismo Beach. We missed the holiday traffic and we also got pretty decent campgrounds! YAH!! Let the camping party begin!

Part of the fun of camping is the pitching of the tents and, boy, there were a lot of tents in our group! Nine to be exact! :)
And here is our lovely tent! Welcome to our home for this weekend! What's in the tent? An air mattress, two sleeping bags, a comforter, two pillows, clothes to change and our shoes.

Most of the activities for day 1 included pitching the tent, eating, walking around the campground, eating, heading out to the beach, eating, hanging out and of course, EATING! There was a ton of eating involved!!

Day 83 - Treats for Tomorrow

We are going camping tomorrow and I've made some treats for everyone. Rice krispies! One of my girlfriends asked that I add chocolate chips so I added the chips to a batch. Unfortunately the chocolate chips all melted. Oh well.

Day 82 - What's So Special?

Yeah I know....there's nothing special about this picture. Other than the fact that the lime is from my BACKYARD!!

Day 81 - Family Dinner at Tasty Garden

Tasty Garden

9433 Bolsa Ave, #C

Westminster, CA 92683

714-839-8580

There is a new restaurant in town. Their menu? HK (Hong Kong) style. Tasty Garden recently opened and I hadn't been there yet but the parents had. Last night they were talking about the restaurant and we decided to make it a family dinner tonight...at 10 p.m. I usually don't eat this late but the parents do not get out of work until that late and it's been eons since we've had a chance to have dinner together. Don't worry, the restaurant stays open pretty late....until 2 a.m.

Anyhoo, the husband and I met up with ECA, PJ, and the parents this lovely evening for a HK style dining experience. Upon walking into this restaurant, I am taken back to the few HK cafes we visited while we were in Hong Kong. They have an extensvie menu selection for all to choose something from.

I started the late evening with this drink (about $ 3 a drink): red bean and grass jelly with tapicoa milk tea. Refreshing. I should have ordered it without the red bean as it is really not my favorite in a drink other than those Vietnamese (Che) desserts. Oh well but I do love those grass jelly. Yum! Yum!The signature dish that I almost always order at any given Chinese restaurant: sweet and sour pork or Peking pork chops. Anybody who have dined with me at a Chinese restaurant KNOW that I will automatically order this dish...unless I know it's terrible at that place. Tasty Garden called theirs Country Style Sweet and Sour Pork (about $10 a plate). By far - my favorite dish of the night. Crispy battered pork chunks tossed with pineapple, onions and green pepper. The pork was not overly battered and crunchy at just the right places. I am salivating just thinking about this dish again. The sauce, tangy, sweet and colorful. Absolute perfection!
I don't remember the name of this dish but I think it's basically Hainan chicken. My family really liked this dish. I thought it was o.k. but I've never been much of a Hainan chicken person, although, that hasn't stopped me from trying different Hainan places. Also about $ 10 a plate.
This dish was probably the least favorite of the night by everyone. Fried clams with chili pepper flakes. I don't really care if the clams are not fresh but at least not smell or taste like it! :( Unfortunately - the "unfreshness" hits your tongue immediately the second you chew into the clam. Sad. I would not recommend this dish. Also about $ 10 a plate. This vegetable stir-fry has lotus root, snap peas, mushrooms and squid in it. This dish wasn't bad. I liked the lotus root and snap peas. I could have done without the squid. Also $ 10 a plate.
This rice dish was sticky rice fried with eggs and dried shrimp. Then they scattered some peanuts on top. I wanted to try this dish as it sounded interesting on the menu but sadly - this was a disappointment. The rice was quite dry and the dish was just o.k. We also ordered red bean pancakes but I did not get a chance to take a picture. Overall, there were a few hits and misses for the night. I would recommend the sweet and sour pork, Hainan chicken and maybe the vegetable stir-fry. Oh...I believe the husband, et al also liked the red bean pancake (I did not get a chance to try the dish).

Would I come back? Probably. This restaurant makes me nostalgic for Hong Kong. The plates are about $ 10 a plate but it's family style so remember to share. There is always the take-out boxes for the leftovers.

Day 80 - Life Starting Again

It's only been two months and this tree is showing life again. Amazing! Original post found here.