Tuesday, December 30, 2014

I want to start the new year . . .

UPDATE: 8 bags of housewares and clothes for Goodwill. There were 4 cars ahead of me @ the drop off center. I guess other people had the same idea as me. 

Well, in my Dad's eyes, with a clean house. Growing up, I always tried to get out of the house the week after christmas so I didn't have massive cleaning chores to do, especially cleaning the windows. Glass louvers, whoever came up with that idea, never had to clean them. Ugh!

But it's cold outside at my house, so no window cleaning for me. But isn't it funny that I have picked up my dad's tradition and I'm trying to scrub my house as clean as I can get it before the new year. So far I've stripped all the beds and washed the sheets and pillow cases. The towels are done. And tomorrow will be the last loads of dirty clothes.


I've been also going through my closets to find items to bring to Goodwill. And found a bunch of old pictures. I decided to get rid pictures that wasn't any good or could recognize the place or person(s). In my purge, I found several great ones that I thought I'd share.



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from my first year in NYC
This is Oct 5 1983. I'm with M, my roommate @ Pratt. We are on the Lower East side, shopping for supplies for school. I think this the day I first meet WG.

from Grandpa's 80th
@ Grandpa's 80th
Ahhh! To be so young and cute again. I'm not in this picture. It was probably when I was in NYC.


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Grandpa with his girls
Everyone always said how my mom and her sister look so much a like. This picture pretty much affirms that comment. They all kind of look like each other. The youngest is missing. She probably couldn't make from CA.

T & C
T & C in Boston
From our trip to Boston. I've always loved this picture of them, they look so cute. 


kids and dinosaur
The kids @ dinosaurs

This is a new one. My sister and her family are visiting my nephew and girlfriend in NYC. And I met up with them and my cousin at the Natural History Museum. Thank goodness they are still young and goofy enough to pose for a silly picture for their auntie.

Well, that's all got for today. 

Tuesday, December 23, 2014

Oh well, it figures

It took me so long to get a etsy shop up and now I find out the name I picked is taken. So what would have been aprilMADE, now will be yurieMADE. Now I have to get some pictures of my goods--2 hats, 2 pouches and cowl. Here's what remade logo. 


I thought I had the will to get this up and running before the Christmas shopping season. But I over reached and just haven't had the energy with restaurant stuff, jamming, cookie and cake baking and all the other stuff in my life. So not to beat myself up for my shop up, I set a more realistic goal of January 2015 to launch and maybe I'll have more items put up. Stay tune. 

Wednesday, December 17, 2014

My Holiday Cookies

I had a long weekend, using up my vacation time before the end of the year. Decided to make good use of it and getting a head start on my holiday baking. But sometimes dreams are just dreams. Instead I ended up doing a lot for the restaurant but that's another post. 

I wanted to give out homemade marshmallows with hot cocoa mix. But I should a have started on Sunday instead of Monday. They needed time to set. With my copy of Baking from my home to yours in front of me, I thumbed through the pages looking for some baking inspiration. I usually don't like to baking holiday cookies. It gets overwhelming and can quickly spiral into madness with trays of cookies cooling and waiting to be packed. And the whole packaging/label craziness. And yes, it needs to be design-y. I am a designer. See what I mean . . .

But I decide to bite the bullet and made all my cookies from Baking from my home to yours.

Very dark chocolate-y
Been wanting to make Chocolate Crackle cookies and lots of the recipes call for oil instead of butter. [If I'm going waste my calories on cookies, then it better have butter in it] I figured Dorie Greenspan may have version of these cookies. Hello! Midnight Crackle. Where have you been all my life. But actually, it should be all my adult life, because it is more of an adult taste. More bitter than sweet. I love the all the spices in it, they round out the bittersweet chocolate flavor. I used Waialua Estate Extra Dark chocolate [what I had left in my stash] and Ghirardelli bittersweet chocolate.

dusted with powder sugar
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Filled with my blackberry jam
I love thumbprint cookies and the first half of the weekend I spent jamming. I decided to make the thumbprints using my last jar of blackberry jam, lilikoi curd and some peach butter [I made those as distractions for WG so he wouldn't eat the others]. Used ground almonds instead of walnuts. These are delicate and light--no eggs in it. I think they would goes perfectly with cup of earl grey. 

WG cookie sampler--he's the official taste tester
Last in the line-up, Chocolate Almond Meringue-top right in the picture. I had egg whites to use, thought I'd just make meringue kisses but found this recipe in the book. It has ground almonds in it. I really like using ground almond in my recipes lately. It lightens up the recipe. They turned out really nice, not too sweet, a light chocolate-y flavor with little bits of bittersweet chocolate bits. 

In between the cookies, I made a batch of apple butter cake as a holiday gift for a family friend. When remembered after they were done, they were allergic to apples. I guess the folks at my office will be happy about this.

Wednesday, December 3, 2014

Been dreaming of . . .

of a delicious layered cake. But I haven't time to make it. I've too busy doing too many things. See my post previous post. 
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One of my finish projects for the restaurant--Gift Certificates
Most of my tasks as of recent have been for the restaurant. Though I've trying to fit in stuff for the house, making up holiday gift [trying to be on time this year as I'm seeing so many people over the holidays] and exercising. 
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Got my quince jam all done
Did I mention that I ran a mile without stopping the other day. That's big in my book. My back was aching and running seems to loosen up the tightness. I should be running a marathon with all the tightness I have. Got to love my gym. 
Got a tracker for my 15 yr anniversary from work 
But I'm getting off track and my dreams of my layered cake await. It all started with having an abundance of egg whites from the cheesecake and coconut and lime pie I make for the restaurant. I hate tossing it out. 

I know, I know, freeze it but my freezer has no space and I most definitely will forget it is in there. 

Anyway, looking for something to make with the egg whites I remembered seeing meringue like disk that is layered into a cake. I knew it's started with a "da" and had a "q" in. You got to love google. 

Dacquoise are like meringue with almond flour, kind of like a meringue cake. Can be flavored. I'm going to use try this Toasted Almond Dacquoise recipe from Zoe Bakes.

So the cake I've been dreaming of is a layered Chai tea cake, cardamon dacquoise, lilikoi curd and vanilla bean swiss buttercream. Hopefully I will have time this weekend to make it. I want to try out a recipe for marshmallow. I know what a tease, thought you were going to see pictures of the finished cake. Trust me I'm waiting for that also. Here's a picture of the last layered cake I made. 
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Mom's Birthday Cake this past May--German chocolate with marshmallow frosting 

I guess I burnt myself out

Because the last time I posted was in mid-October. Lots has been going on since the review in the NYT and the readers choice awards. Restaurant business has been picking up, seeing a lot of new faces. And we are busy creating new dishes, trying to promote the restaurant with new gift certificates and photos of our dishes for our front windows. 

Then on top of all that, I decided I wanted to open my etsy shop [still trying to get it open--soon!!!]. OYE!!

Didn't realize what I needed to do to open up. I created a logo but still need labels.I have to figure out what to do about shipping and pricing. And I have to finish up couple of pieces. I hope I can get it all done this weekend. I don't miss the holiday shopping season. 

I think I may have dug a very deep hole for myself.

But I think I have to stop complaining and get going. Here's a picture of the leaves from the neighborhood before they all came down I took on my way into the NYC. 
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Looks quiet and peaceful, exactly what I need right now!
Stay tune for news on my etsy shop.

Saturday, October 25, 2014

Excited, anxious and just can't wait . . .

UPDATE: It's here! Here's the link: http://www.nytimes.com/2014/10/26/nyregion/a-review-of-cafe-bua-in-piscataway.html?_r=0. Got a "Good" for our review. I'm so happy!

till tomorrow. The New Times came to the restaurant and did a review. We are hoping it comes out tomorrow [Sunday, 10.25.14] and it's a good review. The photographer came to restaurant the friday before last and took lots pictures of dishes, the restaurant and us.

And in the meantime, we got a GREAT surprise [I totally forgot about this] and got on the The Home News and Tribune Best of the Best Middlesex County list for Best Thai Food and One of the Best Brunch. Thank you all for helping us out and voting for us to get us on the list. We are so happy and appreciate all the support. Thank you so much!

Here's the link to the the Best of the Best list.
http://localads.mycentraljersey.com/SS/Page.aspx?secid=148201&pagenum=4&sstarg&facing=false

Sunday, October 19, 2014

Feeling kind of make-y

Been making stuff like crazy. Going from one project to the next. And a lot of ripping out in between.  Most projects are one-off. I've been taking bits and pieces of patterns that I like to come up with something of my own. 


That's how my red ombré slouchy hat took form. The yarn: scraps from 7 projects; the pattern: I used from my the rib from my favorite slouchy hat, the Wurm, shorten it by half and instead of the purling, I knitted all the way working the different yarns into the ombre. I had the most of the burnt orange which I ended with. I added a partial row of darkish red of thick/thin yarn because I like the feel of the yarn and thought it gave the hat a little interest. 

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I'm going to have a hard time letting this one go.
It really came out great, the ombre is so beautiful. After a soak and some blocking, it's soft and slouchy as I wanted it to be. 

Oh! By the way, I'm working my way to opening a etsy shop to sell my goods. Most of the knitted items are one-off using yarn from stash during my stash busting year. Also thinking of sewing up pouches and totes from my fabric stash. I have a lot of vintage fabric that I should start using up. Need to figure out a name--I'm leaning towards a suggestion from a friend--aprilMADE. I'm trying to launch by end of Oct/beginning of Nov to try and get some holiday shoppers. Stay tune.

Sunday's Lineup

UPDATE: I only got 2 items from list done--marmalade and salad. Got side track with knitting and cleaning. Oh well, there is always next week.

It has nothing to do with sports but what I want to make today. I think I have I high hopes. Let's see what I can get done. 

First up--mandarin and lime waiting to boil
  • mandarin and lime marmalade--got some mandarins at a great price and guess who brought me limes again. Giant pot of marmalade!
  • a batch of lime curd
  • raspberry lime bars--with the lime curd I make and using Dorie Greenspan's recipe
  • toasted almond dacquoise--trying out zoebakes.com's recipe
  • chai tea cake
  • vanilla buttercream
  • layered cake--using the last 3 items above. Been dreaming of this cake of layers of chai tea cake, lime curd, vanilla bean buttercream and almond dacquoise. 
  • cheesecake
  • salad prep--this week's lunch

Sunday, October 5, 2014

My Never Ending Stash Busting Post

Been try to finish this post for over a month. Trying to get pictures of all of my projects. Getting distracted by busier schedules of seeing friends this past month and all of my cooking, baking and jamming. 

I've stuck to my goal and I still haven't bought any yarn. Thought I'd be going to NJ or NY sheep and wool festival this year and I even tried to make plans for it but that has fallen through. I guess I'll be keeping on track.


I've shared many of finished projects. So far I've made: 

  • 3 sets of burping cloth and bib {1 skein each of various 100% cotton yarn}
  • Blue/Brown Cowl {2 skeins Paton wool}
  • Color Block hat {1/2 skein each of green and teal Stitch Nation wool}
  • fingerless sleeping mitts {1 skein celadon and a little bit of pumpkin Morehouse Farm merino}
  • my cotton cardigan I almost finished on vacation {3 or 4 skeins of Lion Brand cotton-ease} 
Not bad for a princess that has way too much to do. Knitting and crocheting is usually my quiet time when I can sit and only concentrate on my project. Mostly it doesn't last too long because I feel guilty that I'm not doing something.


But guilt hasn't stopped me starting more projects. To keep me on goal to finished these projects, I'm posting pictures of in-progress.

Mystery Yarn blanket

I posted about this earlier here and still working on it. I really like how it is coming out. Figured out the fiber content, wool blend. I used the burn method that I found on the on Ravelry Forum. 
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On my second skein, I think this blanket may be bigger than I thought
Still wondering who would like this blanket. If you get a surprise box from me it just may be the blanket.

Seaweed Shawl

The yarn is made out to seaweed and I got it a while ago [long while] from my sister as gift. Kept looking for something to take advantage of the color. But now that pick my patterns on the basis of if I put down too long, can I pick it back and start knit, this was what I could find that I thought would look good and fit within my pattern parameters. I think it will look great as winter addition for me. 

{HOLD EVERYTHING! It has taken me so long to write this post and I just realize that I'm not really enjoying this pattern. I'm going to frog it and look for something else to knit. Not that it is looking bad. But all the fun of this pattern is after you finish, when you drop the stitches and I'm too impatient.} 


Pom Pom Peds

Haven't worn pom pom peds since I don't know. But picture on the pattern link in Purl Bee look so much fun. These will be a very late bday gift. The yarn is from a vest a frogged a long while ago. I need to stop frogging stuff.
Turned the heel
Turned the heel

Chevron Blanket(s)

I originally wanted to make a colorful granny square blanket with intersperse squares that my cousins sent for a baby blanket for a cousin. But many years later, since I haven't gotten to it and wanting to stash bust, I decided to make this chevron blanket(s). If I have the will, I'll make up 3 of these blanket for 3 little girls I know. Maybe one will be that granny square blanket with the squares from the cousins. I make no promises--only the hope that I finish one blanket.

{Arghhh! Well, I spoke too soon. Another one goes to the frog. Not enjoying working on the pattern and what it looks like. So off to look for another pattern. Want a fun crochet pattern that keeps my interest. Stay tune.}

Linoleum Dishcloth
Finished the first one for a handmade gift as bridal shower. And decided to make another one because it came out great. Using my 100% cotton from Lion Brand outlet and the pattern is from Mason-Dixon Knitting. These are fun. May use up my stash of 100% cotton on these.
Wish I had more colors in100% cotton
Wedding Gift Blanket
I didn't know what I was going to get for the gift. And then I remembered that I was almost finished with my Hemlock blanket I started a while ago. The pattern was quite easy to follow and looks great from right out of the gate. I planned out to use Lion's Brand Fisherman's Wool. Had a lot issues with this yarn. Lots of breaking and thinning--lots of ends to be woven in. I hope to have the energy to make this blank again for my house. Most definitely using an different yarn but I have to wait till next year. 
D & J Hemlock Blanket
blocked and dried
Office Donated Yarn Scarf
People at my office leave me stuff--yarn, project that are started that never finished, needles, books, etc. . . I've got a whole blanket-worth of granny squares to be stitched together. Most of the time, it's some kind of boucle-type of yarn not my favorite. But it's soft and washable and everyone seems to like buying tons of it but not using it. I've decided to keep a project in the office to knit during lunch. I have frogged this project 2x so far. What is my problem with the frogging projects. Well, hope 3rd time is the charm and I'll keep this one. I'm using potato chip scarf from Krafty Kash Design. Hope I can finish it by holidays to give it as a gift. 
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 I frogged this to start the potato chip scarf
Shroom
I guess the hemlock blanket left me with a lot of creative juices flowing as I finished this in 2 days. WG wanted a tam for the winter--watching too much Outlander. Looking for a pattern and saw this on ravelry and thought this may be a good pattern. I had a bunch of this boucle [donated yarn] and thought it may have a good drape to make the hat. I double the yarn up and with a bunch of energy, tah dah! Something to keep WG head warm with his scarf from Scotland from his mom. {FYI: would look better with a different type of yarn, something something smooth without a texture. But it didn't come out too bad}
Weekend Tam
maybe I'll get a pic of WG with it on

Sunday, September 28, 2014

The next best thing

to jump on a non-stop flight to Hawaii for a plate of laulau, is be to test out a recipe for crockpot laulau. Found a recipe from a shared post on FB that took me to 3sister3kitchen blog that looked good. 

Of course, being here in NJ means no luau leaves aka taro leaves. After some research for a substitute, I decide on collard greens. The 3sister3kitchen recipe suggest spinach but it has such strong flavor I was looking to try something else.


I found this video from Sunny Anderson from the Food Network talking about her version of laulau and using collard greens. How it was good substitute because the greens are usually cooked with pork. When I looked at the green, I kind of thought they even looked a little bit of taro leaf. So that's why I decided to used it for this test. I also read that kale may work well with this. Maybe I'll try it for another test. I'll keep the kale for my chopped salad that I've been loving.


Here's the start of my crockpot laulau test. 

Crockpot Laulau with collard greens, pork butt and salmon
Filling up the pot with the goodies
Following the recipe, I lined the crockpot with the blanched greens, add pork then layered the salmon on top. I seasoned with hawaiian salt. Wish I could find butterfish here, but it's not too easy. Been craving butterfish misoyaki. I guess I have to test out misoyaki on salmon or chilean sea bass.


Top layer of collard greens
ready to start cooking
Then I layered the rest of the greens on top. Now to wait all day for it to be done. 

After all of the laulau prepping, I decided to give my kitchen a good scrub before I start something new. I already finished up a batch of apple butter this morning. 
Add vanilla bean to this recipe. Smell so good
[Oh, my, oh, my only 3 1/2 hours into cooking and it already seems so good. 6 1/2 hours to go. I hope I can hold out till then for a taste. This will be my lunch for tomorrow. I can't wait. I better cook a pot of rice.]

Meanwhile after the good scrub, I decide to try again with the macarons. I know from Hawaii to France. Who would have thought. But I've wanting make both of these for a while. I was just in the mood today.

Made up this batch using the recipe from JoyofBaking.com. I have batch of vanilla bean swiss buttercream in the frig and some lilikoi curd plus a bunch of other jams to fill with 

2 pans of macarons.
waiting to set up
First sheet in and out. Cracked. :(
Cracked! :(
Cracked and no feet but still taste good.
Could be not rested enough or under beaten meringue. May need another minute. I got this troubleshooting macarons from Not So Humble Pie blog. Let's see if second sheet comes out better.

Second sheet. Better.
Second sheet, better.
These have little feet.
Well, not too bad, I'll still fill and eat them. And try again soon, maybe at the end of the week. I hope they come out better. 

And now for what I've waited all day for. Tah Dah! Crockpot Laulau. Smells so good. 
Almost done.
Right before it was done.
Tah Dah! My Crockpot Laulau.
first scoop
Crockpot Laulau with collard greens and salmon. Waited all day for this. Can't wait.
my dinner!
This is so delicious and worth the wait. Not the exact flavor of the laulau and the collard has a different texture but the pork is so soft and greens has a great flavor from the pork and salmon. I think by adding the salmon gave it that umami flavor that food from Hawaii have. Like adding the the sea to it. 

If you don't live in Hawaii, craving some laulau and can wait 10 hours, this is most definitely a dish to make. 

Monday, September 15, 2014

Raspberry and Lilikoi! Yum!

Wow! Sampling the raspberry lilikoi bars before breakfast. My bowl of oatmeal looking pretty sad now.
So good!
Can't believe how great these are--Raspberry and Lilikoi Bars. Used Dorie Greenspan's Raspberry Lemon Bars recipe, I substituted my lilikoi curd instead of lemon curd. I went a little crazy with the raspberry but wanted to use up what I had left. 

For lilikoi curd, I used Ina Garten's Lemon curd recipe [I posted about it here.] substituted lilikoi pulp [I got it frozen, can't grow it here in NJ--:(], I used 3/4 c of pulp and added 1/8 c more of sugar. It's such beautiful yellow color. Smells and taste great. Definitely worth making for a gift. 

I used about a cup and half of curd which is pretty much a whole recipe of curd. This is why they are so delicious. 

Friday, September 12, 2014

My walk home . . .

from my day off in the city.
The river at the bottom of my hill
I stopped by the river to get a quick picture. The light in the late afternoon was really beautiful. The river looks a little low. Been a little dry for a couple of days. I usually see some interesting birds hanging out on that tree on the left. No birds today.

I was coming back from the city after meeting up with my old roommate from Pratt. We had afternoon tea at Bergdorf Goodman. We hadn't seen each out in close to 30 years. She introduced me to WG. We had a nice time talking and catching up with what we were up to. She's quite the busy lady. 
Ms. M and all of goodies for our afternoon tea
The restaurant was quite beautiful and with a lots of fancy people lunching [I probably was underdress with my gap/target ensemble]. From our seat, we had view was of Central Park South. Our afternoon tea consisted of tea sandwiches (egg, chicken, tuna, turkey, cheese, smoke salmon and prosciutto/cheese), scones with jam and honey and sweets (macarons, petit fours and mini tarts). I had a pot of Earl Grey and she had Yellow Lemon [I think]. Overalll, BG was a nice place to lunch, talk and catch up with things. Not too loud and noisy. Food could have been better, especially the sweets--too sweet for both of us. But we were there to see each other so the food was secondary. 

Weather turned pretty nice--the sun came out as we left the restaurant. Weather reports said hot, humid and thunderstorms in the afternoon. Expected my walk home to be miserable. But it turned out to be pretty nice. 

On my way up my hill, I stopped to take picture of my favorite street sign. They may need to add snakes to the sign as there was squished snake right by the sign.
Check out the blue skies for my walk home

Friday, August 29, 2014

Peaches, More Peaches and Apriums

Guess who brought home fruit today. You got it. WG!! I bought a basket of peaches from the farmers market last week and just prepped the last of it for a second batch of jam. I'm making a small batch of peach butter with a recipe from smitten kitchen. 

FYI: peach butter like apple butter has no dairy in it. This recipe is only fruit, sugar, water,  lemon juice and time to cook down and thicken up. The house smelled great--very peachy. 
Jamming in my new vintage jam pot
Slightly shy of 2 pints of peach butter
Then WG walks in with a giant box of fruit. Now I have a box of white peaches, to tend to. Not sure why WG bought it. He doesn't really like white peaches [I like them but I can't eat this much]. He always complains that they are too tart for him. Well, if he doesn't like batch, I guess, I'll use some of them to make a batch of my white peach cupcakes. I haven't made a batch this year. Maybe I'll pick up some raspberries from the farmers market to combine with it. hmmmm. . . .maybe white peach and raspberry cupcakes with raspberry buttercream. 

Enough complaining about too much fruit, on to the next stone fruit. . . . I've been in search of those sweet italian plums, deep dark purple on the outside, yellow/green on the inside to make a batch of jam. Haven't seen them but I've missed the farmers market a couple of weeks in a row. Did I miss them already. Sad face!
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These were from last year, so sweet! I hope I didn't miss you.
But I've might have found a substitute if I missed the italian plums--Apriums. It's a hybrid of apricots and plums--75% apricot. Apricot and Plum jam are my favorites, so these will probably be a great sub. They have a reddish plum skin-not the fuzzy apricot skin with slight orange inside. It's really sweet, kind of a combination of apricot/plum flavor. WG liked these. Making a small batch of jam to see how it taste and eat the rest. 
Prepped and ready to be jammed
Used the Plum Jam recipe from Jellies and Other Sweet Preserves by Linda Ziedrich, adjusted that sugar slightly because these were so sweet. 
Beautiful red color and what a great taste
This is what I got. 2 pints of beautiful red sweetness. Will definitely pick them up again, when I'm finally out of fruit.

By the way, WG came home with a pineapple and melon plus 8 lbs of strawberries, too. He asked me if 6lbs was enough for me. Oye! what is he thinking. He is the man of "more is better". He also does this with other things than food, too. I think is is early signs of being a hoarder. 


Sigh! Guess who, gets to toss these things out. 

Friday, August 22, 2014

New Jam Pots

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Love the handles on these pots
Went to Lambertville flea market with C's Dad and found some new pots for my jam making. Bought 2 vintage Dansk kobenstyle pots, one in blue and one in yellow. I was only going to pick up the big blue one but asked if I could get a deal for 2 [I'm not really good at it but thought I'd try] and he gave me $2 off the total and that made me happy and I got them both.

They are in pretty good shape. I think it just need a good cleaning. Found a this post on DOUGLASCAIN on how to clean up these pots. I'll it out this weekend.

I think I'm going to start looking for more pieces of kobenstyle. I'd love to get the pitcher or the paella pan.

Payment in food

Before I forget, Thank you so much C's Dad for all the work you did at the house. We totally appreciate it. And to C's Mom thanks for loaning out your handy husband on this trip. And one last thank you to C, C's Mom, C's Dad and B for the pillow to calm my hot flashes. It's keeping me at a steady coolish temp throughout the night.

I love to cook for people who love to eat. And I had the perfect house guests for it. 
All of my cooking came about by a visit from CC's Mom, C's Dad and B. They were in town to get C situated with her car and apartment. I asked the very handy C's Dad if he could help me out with a few projects around the house if he had sometime. In payment, I would cook up some meals for them.
C, C's Mom and B were off on an adventure exploring Lambertville, New Hope and Princeton for the day and while C's Dad and I tackled the gym. Pictures of the gym are here. And what we found in the process of the setting the gym up, inspired our dinner for the  night. GRILL! 
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This grill was sitting in a box in our garage for I don't know how long.


What do you do with sweet summer tomatoes . . .

and a new grill. I made roasted or should I called grilled tomato salsa. I posted about how great this recipe was. Here's the recipe.

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The char on the veggies gives  the salsa great flavor 

Grilled up all the veggies: campari and orange grape tomatoes, red and green peppers, jalapeno, onions and garlic. Then I tossed it in the food processor with a little bit of salt and lime juice and bunch of cilantro and gave it a whirled. Adjusted the spicy-ness with a little more cilantro and raw tomato, the jalapeno had a kick. I didn't serve it to the next day till the next day, I think it really rounded the flavor out out tasted better. 

Got myself 3 containers of salsa. 

Monday, August 11, 2014

It only took a year . . .

We finally got a working gym at the house. This has been a year of in-progress--with a giant lull during the winter. Don't get me started about on the big lull--that would be wasted energy and that person isn't worth. Still has lots to finish up with but at least for now we can work out with the giant yellow weight machine and treadmill [gave the everything an initial scrub after it set up because the lull maker was not so neat]. With the help of my extreme handy friend, C and K's Dad, we were able to put back the giant yellow weight machine with some manual from the internet and us minding the holes [we were so happy that we had all the nuts and bolts].

I'm still cleaning out the space to make room for the motorcycle, storage for gardening and miscellaneous stuff. Will get some wall organizers for the ladders and gardening tools this coming week with the help from C and K's Dad. And then the motorcycle will come in for the winter. WG thinks the recumbent bike can will fit [currently residing in our living room but I have a better space for it] but I think he's out of his mind.

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C and K's Dad tightening the bolts
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After the test run by C and K's Dad and WG
Took if for a run this morning
If I have any more energy left, I'll give the gym another good scrub and some paint. And hopefully by this time next year, WG and I will be much fitter than we are now. 

Monday, August 4, 2014

Getting the word out for the restaurant

Being the a good restaurant owner's wife and getting the word out for the restaurant. to make the list for the Home News Tribune Readers Choice Contest. WG and I would appreciate any support. 

Here's a picture of our Duck Pad Thai to inspire you to vote. One of our specials. 

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Here's some links to check out our restaurant, just in case.
Blog: http://cafebua.blogspot.com
Website: http://CafeBua.com
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/CafeBua?ref_type=bookmark


Please consider voting for Cafe Bua in the Home News Tribune Best of the Best Readers Choice Contest 2014 Middlesex County. Categories to consider for us: Brunch, Burger, BYOB, Casual Dining, Family Friendly, Seafood, and Thai Food.
http://app.secondstreetapp.com/l/Home-News-Tribune--Best-of-the-Best-2014/Ballot/EatingampDrinkingPlaces

Saturday, August 2, 2014

Besides hanging out with a crazy pirate

I've been catching up with friends. Lots talking, art and food involved. 

On a recent summer Friday, [one of my favorite things about working in publishing is our summer Friday schedule] I spent the afternoon in the city with a friend to see some exhibits and finally getting over to the High Line.



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Perfectly Blue Skies
It was beautiful day, we had great weather, perfect for walking. I got to PA early [early bus was late and I was early], so I got to people watch. And then I saw him, long hair, kind of crunchy in a burgundy tunic, puffed 3/4 sleeves, belted at the waist and stripe cropped pants and sandals.