Announcement!

I have exciting news to share! I'm officially a food blogger! I'm interning for Kristie and Clarissa of 626foodettes.com, so I'll be contributing to their blog and writing about food in the San Gabriel Valley. My first post is up now. I was so excited to be invited to the social media preview dinner at Pitfire and the food truly is amazing so check it out if you can and check the blog for more food recommendations in the SGV!

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What happened to January?

One minute I'm ringing in 2014 and the next minute it's February and it's been over a month since I've updated my blog. Crazy! So what happened in January?



I snapped some pics of Minka looking adorable

Had a round of ginger ales with my lovely co-workers.

Bowled the night away at our office holiday party

Played Cards Against Humanity

Saw Broken Bells play on Jimmy Kimmel!

And had the most amazing burger at Eureka. (Seriously, if you go try the Fresno Fig Burger)

January was quite an interesting month over here! How was your January?

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Fun in LA: Disneyland!

Disneyland is a weird concept, if you think about it. You pay a huge amount of money to get into the park (not counting what you have to pay just to park your car), and once you get inside you're pretty much forced to spend more money if you want to eat or drink anything. This is not to mention the cost of any souvenirs you might pick up. You basically pay for the privilege of spending more money and standing in lines longer than the rides themselves. And yet, on any given day Disneyland is packed!

Maybe this is a symptom of becoming an adult who's more conscious about money (hello student loans), but lately I've been more skeptical of Disneyland even though I love it. Up until this week the last time I had been was almost 3 years ago. Even though we talked about going every time I was home for a break I couldn't justify spending so much money in one place, which is why I was so excited when a co-worker of my mom's offered us free tickets. It may be a strange money-making machine, but you can't deny it's fun. 

We got to go on almost all of our favorite rides, Pirates was closed and I didn't want to lose my hat on Space Mountain so we missed out on those. The guide we had on the Jungle Cruise was hilarious! As it is I'm a fan of cheesy humor and I love puns so the Jungle Cruise is right up my alley, and this guide had the best one-liners I've ever heard on the ride. I realized that I had never been on Peter Pan so we braved the line and it was totally worth the wait. It was a fitting day for my first ride because I finally caved and bought the Peter Pan hat that I had been wanting forever. I also got to have my favorite Disneyland treat, a Pineapple Float, so I was a happy camper.

One of my favorite things to do at Disneyland is peek into the Bibbidi Bobbidi Boutique and see the little ones getting their hair done like princesses. Honestly I don't know what it is because when I was that little I don't think I would have liked being in the princess dress or having a bunch of glitter in my hair (I had a very strong anti-tulle stance), but seeing the looks on those little kids faces as they get their hair done is too much for me. I just see them there looking like they've never been happier, and how it really is a magical experience for them and it gets me right in the tear ducts. 

As always my mom is not pictured, but rest assured, she had fun as well. 

Outside Club 33

Jungle Cruise

Pineapple Float

Waiting for Captain EO


End of the day, photo credit: mom

Fireworks! Photo credit: mom

All in all it was a magical day, so mission accomplished Disneyland. 

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FUN in LA: Little Tokyo

Last week Lena, Chelo, and I went out to Little Tokyo. I hadn't been in a while, and I was looking forward to checking out the current exhibit at MOCA, but for some reason I always end up in Little Tokyo on the day that MOCA is closed. (Seriously. I think the last time I went to MOCA I was 15, every time I've tried to go since it's been closed.)

But we still had fun! We caught the Metro and ate at Daikokuya, which was amazing. My only other experience with ramen has been Orochon, and there is no comparison. The broth at Daikokuya was perfect! I ordered tsukemen, and I've been dreaming about it ever since. After lunch, Chelo met up with a friend while Lena and I got coffee at Demitasse. I ordered an orange-thyme latte that was excellent, but it was so strong I was buzzing from the caffeine before I was even half way through it.

The only downside to Little Tokyo is that there's not much to do besides eat (especially when MOCA is closed), but the food alone is definitely worth the trip.

Blurry tsukemen

Lena looking supercute, as usual

Doughnut Day!

Yesterday a few tweets and texts told me it was National Doughnut Day. (sidebar: is it doughnut or donut?) One of the perks of being unemployed is that I had no prior engagements so I decided to put my doughnut pans to use. I used this recipe for blueberry doughnuts from pinterest, but without the glaze. Aside from being slightly misshapen because I overfilled the pans, they were great!





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i made a pie!

I made an apple pie y'all!
I've always thought of pies as extremely complicated things to make, and I don't actually know why it is that I thought that except maybe for the fact that I had never seen a pie made from scratch before. This past year one of the things on my "21 before 22" list was to make a cheesecake in a springform pan, but I think that making a pie is a worthy substitute. I had an early birthday dinner with my family tonight, so I thought it would be a good opportunity to try out pie making. I used this recipe from A Beautiful Mess, and I used vanilla instead of bourbon only because we didn't have any bourbon on hand. I also used Trader Joe's frozen pie crust, because it was my first pie ever and I felt like I was entitled to a shortcut.




It was actually a lot easier to make than I thought it would be. I used my Mandoline to slice up the apples after I peeled them and from there pretty much all I had to do was whisk together the other ingredients for the filling and pour them over the apples.

Next time I will definitely make the crust from scratch as well. Got any pie recipes to share?

a coconut breve and an americano with room

I'm home for spring break this week and very much enjoying relaxing and not writing papers. I spent the weekend hanging out around the house with my mom and my grandparents, and today I met up with Lena for coffee.
We went to our regular spot, Jameson Brown. Lena introduced me to it a few years ago and it has (in my humble opinion) the best coffee in the world. I'm hooked on their Coconut Breves.
I hope your Monday was as lovely as mine. :]

what you eat

I haven't mentioned that I'm living in on-campus apartments this year instead of the dorms. The only thing I was hesitant about before moving in was having to cook for myself. I had to make my own food in London, but I had no pots/pans/kitchenware of any kind so I basically had to rely on there being a dirty pot in the sink that I could wash and use and put back before it's owner noticed. All I knew how to make at that point was pasta, so it worked out fine but I was aware that a diet that was 95% pasta was probably not the best idea. So when I got back I decided I was going to try to really cook this year, and luckily for me my roommates already know how to cook, so I figured it wouldn't be so bad.

But seriously, I can't even believe how amazing the stuff we've made is. In the last 2 weeks we've made pumpkin risotto, tofu stirfrys, broccoli fritters, and eggplant parmesean. Last night everything on my dinner plate was green! I'm so proud of us, and I really don't think I've ever eaten this healthy. I'm going to start taking pictures so I can share what we're making. [I promise there are going to be pictures here soon, and regular updates]

Do you have any favorite recipes?

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