Let spring shine through!

Two days ago was Groundhog's Day and Candlemas! I was going to make chocolate rice crispy treat groundhogs in celebration, but I didn't have any marshmallows! So, I made my own. I've done it before and it's actually not as difficult as some might think. I ended up using to much marshmallow for the ratio of chocolate rice crispys that I had. Ooops. So much for making groundhog heads outta them. So I just made them normal rice crispy treats. For Candlemas, I guess for those in France that celebrate this holiday, they celebrate by making crepes no earlier than 8pm (dunno why...). That is just what I did. I had some friends come over and we had a little Candlemas party. I had also found out that there is a superstition that if you can flip the crepe with the pan while holding a coin in the other hand, your family will prosper throughout the coming year. Each of us took our turn at it and guess what?! We are all going to prosper this year! It was quite a fun experience. We made both sweet and savory crepes. Some with tuna creme and some with homemade blackberry jam... yummm.

I had gone to the rock climbing gym with a group of friends the other day and after 3 hours of climbing, I was pretty pumped out. I had climbed some pretty challenging, but very fun routes. So after the climb some of us came over for a movie and so I made this caramel peanut butter popcorn. Gooy sweetness with a slight hint of salt. Haha.. kind of cancels out my climb?

Today I had a brunch to go to and so I decided to contribute by making these muffins that I had been wanting to try (yes, they were one of my million tabs). They are vegan Clementine Chocolate chip muffins. They turned out not too bad, just wished they didn't stick to the muffin tin so much. They stuck because they don't have much oil in them, that's my guess at least. But they were decent muffins. Not to die for or anything, but good.

First day of February!

February came real fast! I don't think I'm ready for a new month yet! I guess I have no say in the matter. However, I had my eye on this one ice cream recipe that doesn't use an ice cream machine, and I say, I'm going to try making it today. So, right now, it is in the freezer. Hopefully it turns out!

I have this horrible habit of having a ton of tabs on my computer, half of which are recipes that I really want to try making in the near future. Thus, leaving them open, right? Well, it has come to my attention how sever this problem of mine is, seeing that I have 7 windows open with 3~7 tabs on each. Yeah. Problem. So my goal is to NOT stumble upon any more recipes until I make these that I have open in my tabs. This way I can decide on whether or not I want to keep them or not.

The ice cream recipe is one of my millions of tabs, still got a long way to go. My main concern is: Who is going to eat all this baked stuff I'm going to bake?

Just Another Day?

This morning started off with another warm up run in the, not so nice, 14*F crisp air. But, admittedly, still refreshing. What I've got on my plate today?

*Print pictures

*Mail a package

*Korean New Years dinner

That's the basic gist of my day at least, to my knowledge.

I'm pretty excited about the dinner. I'm going to learn how to make Korean food! I'll keep you posted on how it goes!

So it turns out, I didn't make it in time to learn and help out with the Korean food :( It was delicious though! We had this traditional sticky rice cake soup with a cucumber side. Sorry, I didn't take any pictures. You can use your imagination and let it wander in how amazingly good it is :)

Not dessert, but just as good

So yesterday, my sister and I were going through some tough times. What better than making some yumm for dinner, yeah? So I made some dough and we invited people over for pizza. We made 'em stuff crust of course. There was a hawaiian and an everything pizza. The everything pizza included only the best ingredients: turkey, shrooms, avocado, tomatoes, onions, roasted garlic, and chezz. Mmm mmm goodness.... Then we made a dessert pizza, kinda like a simple apple tart really. So so good. Way to turn an inner frown to giddy joy :)

Today, I was going to go to yoga at the gym, but I ended up not ready till 7 and that's when the class starts. So instead I went on a super short 1.32 run. Later I'm going to meet up with my sister and we are going to donate with the Red Cross. Hopefully I'll have a high enough iron count! I'm debating between going the leafy greens route or the beef route for lunch to see if I can get any last minute iron burst in my blood before going in.

I got my rock climbing gym membership two weeks ago and I've been going 3~4 times a week. Tonight will be the start of another good week of rock climbing! I still need to get myself a harness, but I'm also debating if I should get a yoga mat. I guess I'll just be passively looking into both for now.

A New Year Already?!

So, New Years past a while back. I haven't posted a new entry yet. Hm.. Maybe I should feel guilty. Well, maybe I can be forgiven by posting now, just in time for Chinese New Year. Chinese New Years Eve is tomorrow and my sister and I are having a dinner party at our place. I'm making two types of cake, but three in total. I'm making two new years cakes (there are two types of new year cakes. One is steamed and sometimes then pan fried. The other is more westernized where it is baked. They are both mochi like cake, however the one that is baked is more cake like and spongy). I'm making the baked kind. You might be wondering why bake two of them? Well, from past experience, one batch is not enough. Yes, it's that good. The other cake is a super rich (sinfully delicious) chocolate and caramel cake. The reason for making this cake that is obviously not Chinese is because there is a birthday tomorrow as well AND I might make this cake for my sister's wedding reception. Yes. She has asked me, oh so unprofessional me, to make her wedding cake. I'm in the process of picking a few cake recipes and baking them to see how she likes them. So yes. Three things of cake tomorrow! That's my contribution to bringing in the Chinese new years. Haha.. CAKE!

COOKIES O.O

We had a Masquerade themed cookie party at our place last month. Yes, that means, baking cookies like crazy!! YUM So I baked three kinds of cookies :) I had these candy corns that needed to be used so I tried something new. I made these chocolate cookies with candy corn and my peanut butter cookie with candy corn as well. Not as bad as I thought they might turn out. The candy corn gave these cookies an extra chewy texture, which in my opinion, made it taste great! The third cookie I baked were pumpkin cookies. I was disappointed with those, just cause I ended up falling a bit short on the pumpkin puree and it showed. The pumpkin flavor wasn't all that strong. So all you were getting outta it was mainly the cakey texture that pumpkin cookies have. Oh well, I guess it's just reminding me that, yet again, I can't win in everything. Here are some pictures of the cookies!

Not finding time

So it's been a while, but I honestly haven't been finding myself with much time. Yes, in other words, I haven't been baking :( It's tragic, I almost feel some sort of void in me. But besides this depressing piece of information, I have been cooking (I guess I need to eat, even daily, is what I heard). So here are somethings that I have been making myself for dinner.