Wednesday, March 28, 2012

Update Through Photos

I don't have anything new to share today, so here's what's been going on in my life via my iPhone photos:

So I'll start off with my completion of my first item from my 
2012 Kitchen Bucket List.  Woohoo!  I made Snickerdoodles the
weekend of March 17th for the first time, and they came out pretty good.
They were fun to make because you have to roll them around in
cinnamon and sugar.  Not to mention, they're very easy!  



Later that evening, I celebrated St. Patty's day
with Sara (her blog here), my mom, my mom's husband, and
my mom's good friend.  We went to watch my
mom's friend's band perform at a bar and got way too trashed.
I had a pretty awesome time but suffered from a sever hangover
the following Sunday.

My first true love. ;)




Mr. H had the following Wednesday off, so we went on a date to the movies.
We watched The Lorax, which we didn't enjoy all that much.
We did enjoy each other's company after the movies though.  ;)
What I wore.


Ok, ready for drunk photos?  Haha.  One of my other
closest friends, M, came up to visit from LA last Friday.
He stayed at my home so we were able to spend the whole
weekend together.  Friday night was party time.  I made dinner for him
and two other friends, we ate, and then we got the shots started!
We hit up the gayborhood downtown and spent the whole night
drinking, catching up, and dancing.  

Open mouth syndrome.

Always take the best pictures with her.  Hahaha.


M is the one photo-bombing us.  Haha.



Saturday I had a bit of a hangover, again.  M and I went 
to my favorite Korean spot to get some
good soup and fried chicken.

Dumpling soup (sujeibi), side dishes (banchan), and
fried chicken way in the back.

Last night was Mr. H's day off again and we went to 
the same restaurant that M and I went to have dinner.  We
ate short ribs and spicy noodles and stuffed ourselves until
we were uncomfortable.  I love that my husband is a good eater.


Oh, and I also bought these four new polishes yesterday
on my lunch break.  Rite Aid had another sale going
on for "buy one, get one half off"on all their Sally Hansen's
Xtreme Wear (which are my favorite right now).

Spring colors!

And last but not least, a photo from this morning of my 
silly Ziggy.  He was distracting me from getting
ready because he wanted me to play with him.


Mr. H's birthday is coming up at the end of April and we just booked a two night stay at Mont Bleu Resort in S. Lake Tahoe.  We are both so excited to go away with each other for a couple days and celebrate Mr. H turning 29!  One more year and he will be 30!  I still remember celebrating his 22nd birthday with him (way back when).  This will be my first time going to Tahoe since I've been 21, with one exception for my Aunti's wedding, but we were only there for a couple hours.  We have two whole days together!  Last night we pined over how we wished it was tomorrow.

So that's what's been happening on the other side of this computer!  What about you guys?  Anything exciting happening on your end?

Thursday, March 22, 2012

The Versatile Blogger Award



The rules for the award are as follows:
1. Thank the person who nominated you and link to their original post.
2. Share seven things about yourself.
3. Nominate 15 5 newly discovered blogs and let them know that they have been nominated. 



So first off, a big thank you to Lippi for nominating me for this award!  Please take a minute and check out her blog, cutelippi, which focuses on makeup, cosmetics, hair care, and reviews.  


Second, another seven things about myself!  I had to go back and read my last seven things I posted to make sure I don't repeat myself.  Hahaha.  


1. I attended private Catholic school until sophomore year, after which I switched to public school and graduated early.


2. Despite my first fact, I am not a practicing Catholic.  


3. I love when people add color the their wardrobe, but it is difficult for me.  I love wearing black.  I have tried and failed many times to incorporate colorful items of clothing into my closet.


4. I graduated from a community college with my Liberal Arts degree.  Not very impressive, I know, but it's something.


5. I recently checked off my first item from my 2012 Kitchen Bucket List!  The snickerdoodles were delicious.  I should probably complete more than one recipe every three months though if I want to finish by the end of the year.  Haha.


6. Even though I don't wear too much color as far as clothing goes, I love painting my nails multiple colors.  I rarely have them with only shade.
Ignore the crappy polish job.

7. My longest friendship is going on 20 years this September and I can hardly believe it.  Sarah and I lived next door when we were four years old and have been best friends ever since.  Of course we've had rough patches here and there, but we always come back to each other.  You can follow her blog here.
Aren't we beautiful together? 


Lastly, the five newly discovered blogs that I nominate (some aren't so "newly" discovered, but oh well).  I copied Lippi as far as changing the rules a little bit and switching fifteen to five.  Check these blogs out:

Wednesday, March 21, 2012

[Recipe] Deviled Eggs

Since there are tons of the "standard" deviled eggs recipes all over the internet, I messed around a bit and made these ones a little different.  I thought sharing my regular deviled egg recipe would just be repetitive, and they are very easy to make even if you are just guessing at measurements (which I normally do for deviled eggs).  So if you want something a little different, try these out.

What You Need:

- 18 eggs
- 3/4 c. mayo
- 1/2 tbs. minced garlic
- 1/4 tsp. pepper
- 1/2 tsp. salt
- 1 tsp. Sriarcha sauce
- 1 1/2 tbs. honey mustard
- paprika for sprinkling

 Let's Cook:

- First, you will need to boil your eggs.  Boiled eggs are much easier to peel if they are not super fresh, so buy your eggs a week before you want to make them.

- Set your eggs in a large pot, cover them with water, and bring your water to a boil.

- Once the water is boiling, turn off the stove (remove the pot from the burner if you are using an electric stove).

- Next you will need to peel your eggs (you can leave them in the fridge over night if you boil them the day before you are going to make them, which I usually do).  I've found the easiest way to peel eggs is to crack them all first and let them set in cold water for a bit (just while you are peeling them), and also to peel them under cold, running water.
Separated yolks and whites.




- Once you have all your eggs peeled, begin slicing them in half long ways.  Take out the yolks and put them in a large mixing bowl.  You can rinse your egg halves to get any leftover yolk out, but you don't have to.

- The hard part is over!  Add your mayo, mustard, garlic, sriracha sauce, salt, and pepper into your bowl of yolks and blend with a mixer until smooth.

- If you don't have a cake decorating gadget (something like this), you can just scoop the mixture into the egg white halves with a spoon.  If you do have one, put the mixture into the container and make some pretty egg yolk designs!

- Sprinkle with paprika and enjoy!  Click here to print.



Thursday, March 15, 2012

Contest by 8-Bit Grayscale + Some Photos

Hi guys, real quick post for the day!  My friend Josie is having another awesome giveaway on her blog, 8-Bit Grayscale.  The lucky winner receives a $25 gift certificate to ClubCouture, which offers tons of wonderful clothing and accessories.  Click here to enter her contest.

I've been working on a post of my "things to do before I die", but I'm not quite finished and don't have anything substantial to write about or recipes to share, so below are some recent instagram photos.  One more day of work until the weekend!


Silly chihuahua~

Pork, eggs, cucumber, homemade fish sauce, and pickled
baby eggplants for my husband.

Tuesday, March 13, 2012

Things I Have Been Wanting Lately

I know Christmas and my birthday both just recently passed, but this is more of a wish list to myself.  Below are photos of items I want to purchase in the fairly near future (or at least have a list for when September and December come back around).  Every year people ask me for ideas for birthday gifts and I am always at a loss, so here goes:



1. Junky by William S. Burroughs
2. Naked Lunch by William S. Burroughs
3. KitchenAid Artisan 5-Quart Stand Mixer (in pistachio)
4. Apron Anxiety by Alyssa Shelasky
5. Pins & Needles Embroidered Scarf
6. Hello Kitty iPhone Case
7. Bon Voyage Travel Journal
8. Falling Leaves Wall Decor

Well, that's all for now!  Short and sweet?  Hahaha.  I'll probably purchase the iPhone case and travel journal within the next couple of weeks.  The Stand Mixer is definitely something that will remain on the list until Christmas.

Thursday, March 8, 2012

[Recipe] Red Velvet Cookies

Ok, I know I said I might not be posting for a while, but I ended up baking these red velvet cookies the other night in an attempt to keep myself busy and not dwell on things.  I took pictures as I went and have been working on this post, since I figured I should actually do things, rather than lay in bed having a fucking pity party with myself.  I also figured out how to make easily printable pages for my recipes, so I will be going back to edit and add in the link for my other recipes that I posted last year.  Now, let's make some cookies!


What You Will Need:
  • 1 1/2  c flour
  • 1/4 tsp salt
  • 1/2 tsp baking soda
  • 3 tbs Dutch-processed cocao powder
  • 2 tbs red dye
  • 2 tsp vanilla extract (divided)
  • 1 c sugar
  • 1 egg (at room temperature)
  • 8 tbs butter (at room temperature)
  • 1 c white chocolate chips

All of the needed ingredients.




Let's Bake:
How your separate mixing bowls should
look prior to combining them.
  • Preheat oven to 350 degrees (F).
  • Set out three (3) separate mixing bowls.  One (1) large and two (2) medium sized.
  • Start with one of the medium bowls.  Stir together your flour, salt, and baking soda.  Do not use the mixer for this (flour is very messy).  Set the bowl aside.
  • In your other medium bowl, stir (again, do not use a mixer) together cocao powder, red dye, and 1 tsp of vanilla.  You should get a thick paste with no lumps.  Set the bowl aside.
  • In your large mixing bowl, cream (with mixer) your egg, sugar, butter, and the other 1 tsp of vanilla.  Mix until it looks light and fluffy.
  • Turn your mixer off, add the bowl with the cocao powder mixture into the large bowl, and then blend together.  Mix until you have one uniform red color.
  • Again with the mixer turned off, slowly start adding the flour mixture into the large bowl.  You want to add a small amount, with the mixer off each time, and then mix well before adding more.  Do not be lazy or impatient and dump the whole amount in at once or you will get flour everywhere (trust me, I've done it).



Batter with white chocolate chips stirred
in and ready to bake!
  • Once you are finished combining all of your bowls, use a spatula to stir in the white chocolate chips.  You just need to fold these into the batter.  Do not over stir.
  • To bake these, you can either drop the batter by rounded teaspoons onto a parchment-lined baking sheet, or if you are out of parchment paper (like I was), you can put the rounded teaspoons into cupcake liners and bake them in a muffin tray.  They will need to bake in the preheated oven for about 11 minutes.  
  • Let them cool for at least 5 minutes and enjoy!

Click here to print this recipe.
  

Ready to eat!

Tuesday, March 6, 2012

Things I Have Been Loving Lately

I have been super lagging on baking another batch of red velvet cookies so that I can photograph the process and post my recipe, so I thought I'd share with the blog world some of my favorite things that I have been enjoying lately.

Sally Hansen's Xtreme Wear nail color in Grey Area, 
Lacey Lilac, and Twisted Pink.  I love all three of these colors, especially
when I wear them simultaneously.  Glad I got to add to my collection of
Xtreme Wear just recently (and for cheap).


Yes to Cucumber facial towelettes and daily moisturizer.  I just picked both
of these items up a couple weeks ago and I have to say, I am very impressed.
I am no skin expert, so I just go off what I think feels nice, smells good,
and doesn't cause any skin issues like rashes.  I love the
smell of cucumber too, so these little guys are a real treat for me.


My two new pairs of boots that I also purchased a couple weeks back.
The brown ones are my very first pair of short boots that 
I have ever owned.  I really feel like they make my legs look stubby
and my calves look much too large.  All of the boots were buy one, get
one at Shiekh Shoes though, so I figured I'd give them a try.


This is one my daily essentials.  Victoria's Secret Plum Drop
fragrance mist.  I have the lotion and bubble bath too, but I
keep this one in my purse.

Yeah, shouldn't love these as much as I do.  Haha.

These are a new favorite!  I'm usually not a big
chip eater, but I love the flavor of these.  Perfect snack for work.  


I meant to post this last week, but got caught up with things.  Please excuse my blog if it isn't updated for a while.  I'm going through a difficult time this week and I have a feeling it might last a while.  Until next time, whenever that may be.  :)

Thursday, March 1, 2012

[Haul] Nail Polishes

I finally did it!  I finally bought a bunch of cheap stuff!  Hahaha.  Today I stopped by RiteAid to pick up a couple things and decided to stroll by the nail polish section, just to peak, and I was greeted by tons of little yellow tags with marked down prices.  I went a little nuts at first and grabbed too many to carry, so I reluctantly put some back.  I even had to put a couple more back at the cashier because I still felt like I was about to buy too many.  Here are the ones I did end up purchasing:

From left to right:
  • Sally Hansen HD - Resolution ($1.55)
  • Sally Hansen Diamond Strength Ruby Sequin ($1.24)
  • Sally Hansen Hard as Nails Platinum ($0.49)


 

All Sally Hansen Hard as Nails in Xtreme Wear in the following colors from left to right:
  • Purple Pizzazz ($0.74)
  • Cherry Red ($2.99) This one and the one below weren't on sale, but I really liked them.
  • Pacific Blue ($2.99)
  • Pink Boa ($0.74)



And one photo of all of them together:

Flash makes them look a little different than
the actual colors, especially the blue one.
Eight polishes for $10.74!  Not bad, right?  I actually have no clue, since as you know, I am an awful bargain shopper.  Sure sounded like a good deal to me!