Scrapbook and I

This weekend was the National Scrapbook Day.  Unfortunately, I can’t go to Bellingham for the event because it was J’s birthday.  Since one of J’s birthday wish was to sleep in, so I decided to wake up early to work on my scrapbook.

One of the main goal after my wedding is to finish my wedding scrapbook before my 1 year wedding anniversary.  I try to capture every moment of the wedding planning.  Also to capture the big day and the banquet in Hong Kong.  I always love photos and playing with craft.  Scrapbook is a wonderful medium for me to capture the biggest day of my life thus far.  I think I have only done 20% of the book and there is much much more to do.  Since I always wake up early on the weekend while J enjoys sleeping in, I plan to use that early alone time to work on my scrapbook bits by bits.  And of course, to work on my scrapbook together with a good cup of coffee from our lovely new Nespresso.  I really enjoy scrapbooking.  And I am very grateful to have co-worker/friend M to share this hobby with!  I look forward to the summer scrapbook retreat where I spent Friday to Sunday focused on scrapbooking!!

After I have completed my wedding scrapbook, then I will make a scrapbook of our first year of Mr. and Mrs.  There will be lots to scrapbook about… Traveling to Hong Kong together, moving into our first home together, and our first Christmas together.  I look forward to the next book as much as it is my motivation to complete this one at hand.

Cactus Club at English Bay

J and I went to Cactus Club at English Bay early in March.  I had a bad experience eating dinner by English Bay because I went in the evening and it was so dark to look outside that it kind even look scary.  I was a bit reluctant to go, but I am willing to give it a second try.  The scene was just beautiful!

When we arrived, it was just about sun down.  It was beautiful.  The whole restaurant was filled with the the orange sun beams.  It is one of the most romantic environment we ever went to.  I think the food is the same price as other Cactus Club that is less beautiful.

Ceviche – ocean wise™ salmon, prawns, red onions, thai basil, mint, cilantro and nuoc cham dressing. This is very refreshing.  The lime and the saltyness remind me of the Thai fish broth I had in Hong Kong.

butternut squash + prawn ravioli – artisan made butternut squash and mascarpone ravioli, sautéed jumbo prawns, truffle butter sauce, pine nuts.  This is absolutely amazing!!  The ravioli filling was creamy, smooth, and sweet.  The prawns were cooked to perfection.

 

grilled tuna club – ocean wise™ albacore, tarragon tartar, bacon, arugula, cilantro, pickled ginger, olive oil ciabatta.  As much as I love tuna, this is a bit too much for me.  The pickled ginger was a bit too strong that stole the show of the tuna.  I could barely taste the tuna.  I properly won’t try it again.

I couldn’t find the name of this dessert.  It is very creative.  The top is a caramel foam.  Middle has some caramel crunch.  Bottom is chocolate moose.  It was good except the caramel crunch and the portions.  The caramel crunch ended up sticking to your teeth.  And I think 1 cup per serving will be sufficient instead of serving 3 cups at a time.

It is overall a very romantic experience.  I think I will definitely come back again just for the view again.  I will properly not order the tuna sandwich and the dessert again.

Homemade Pasta

 

One of the main goal of my surprise holiday is to use my new Kitchen Aid Stand Mixer’s Pasta Attachment and make home-made pasta.  This certainly is a trial and error experience.  Saturday’s first attempt was somewhat of a failure where the dough was too dry and I kept on blowing the kitchen’s fuse.  I felt very disappointed of the failure.  After much encouragement from J, I make it again on Sunday and adjust everything possible and it work.  It’s a mixture of about 3 different recipes.

To start, 2.25 cup of all purpose flour with 4 eggs.  Mix with the white paddle of the stand mixer for 30 seconds, then change to the dough hook for 2 minutes.

After the dough hook, kneed for 10 minutes.  Particularly using the bottom of the palm to press into the dough.  When it get sticky, add a little more flour on top of the dough.  After the dough become a solid ball and about 10 palm presses, throw the dough on the table to get your frustration out.  When I found out about this, I really didn’t think it will do anything.  After I tried to throw it a few times, the dough become softer and easier to kneed.  After kneed and throw for 10 minutes, add a little flour, roll it in the a ball, and cover with plastic wrap.  Let it sit for 20 minutes to an hour.

Beautiful dough after 20 minutes of rest.

Since I am using the Pasta attachment, I have to make small dough balls in order to make the pasta.  Small dough ball covered with flour for ease to go through the attachment.  And since the attachment churn the dough inside, I added extra flour into the attachment to ensure the dough goes smoothly.

The attachment in action!

Cooking the pasta was a snap.  2 minutes in hot water and it is cooked through.  This recipe makes dense pasta that is much different then your store bought pasta.  I put the cooked pasta into a cream sauce, and it just doesn’t stand up to it well.  The cream sauce just disappeared with the pasta.  I will try to cook a very strong and sharp tomato sauce for the next time.

Home made pasta took me close to an hour to make.  Definitely not as easy as store bought dry pasta.  It’s more a luxury from the kitchen on a day off.  I can’t see myself making it after a work day.  It’s sure is fun to make it as I do need J’s help all along the way.  Making this pasta is a relationship builder where 2 have to work together to make it work.

Easter Weekend of Cooking

Easter bunny made by a kid few weeks ago during my visit to some old friends.

It has been great to spent 4 days in a row with J for the Easter Holiday.  It has been a cooking and cleaning focused weekend.  I feel very proud to say that we have finally tidy up the home to a standard that I am comfortable with.  Thanks to J’s amazing organizing skills, we got it done over the week.  The biggest event of the weekend is to have some friends coming over for a Pasta Making Party.  I think most of the things turn out okay, especially the food.  It am glad that I was able to prepare all of the side dishes on time and as planned.  I hope all who attended had a good time.

The table setting. Sorry I was not very environmentally friendly, but we don’t have enough plates for everyone. (at least in our current home).

Parmesan Chicken with bacon wrap. The chicken with bacon wrap came frozen from Superstore which is a very good deal. I added the Parmesan panko crust that works great with the chicken.

Simple leafy lettuces with tomato for salad.

Baked salmon.

My first butter pouch lobster. It looks like a lot of butter, but half of it is water.

Top view of my no-bake strawberry cheesecake. I will post about this separately.

And if you didn’t recognize, a lot of my serving plates were from my wedding registry.  Thanks to all who contributed to give me these wonderful serving plates.  They are beautiful to use in a dinner party.

For me, it is a great fun to cook for my friends.  I think the most important thing is the planning prior to the evening.  From deciding the menu, getting the groceries, cleaning the home, to the day of cooking multiple plates.  It’s all about time and execution.  A great big thanks to J to help me on every step of the dinner.  And I think the final bill was not too bad.  It cost about $15 per person including all the drinks and snacks.  For a meal with fish, chicken, and lobster, $15 is quite decent I think.  The most expensive cost of this dinner is I got oil stain on my favourite silk shirt can during the cooking.  It is a lesson to be learned: “Wear an apron!!”  Now I no longer wear the shirt because the stains are really big despite many attempts.  No worries, I got many aprons, but I have not get used to wearing it.  I will not make this mistake twice.  I will wear an apron next time!!!

I hope it was a good event that my friends will come back to another dinner party in the near future.  Anyone interested??

The Real House Wife for 24 Hours

Beautiful tulip from my co-worker that sat on my office window earlier in the week.

Spring is here in Vancouver.  It’s a new beginning for me too.  Being a wife and working full time seems to be much of an adjustment that takes time and strength to get used to.  Since my boss is taking time off, he offered me to take time off at the same time.  It has been rather stressful at work.  So I really do need some peaceful rest.

Yesterday was the first day of my 5 days day-off.  J was at work, so I just head out to venture alone.  It feels like I am a full time housewife.  I am equally as busy as if I am at work.  I woke up at 6:00 am to wake up J the sleepy husband to work.  Then in the morning, I went to get fresh meat for dinner, shopping at Michaels, and go get a mani/pedi.  Grab a quick lunch at home and watch TV while falling asleep.  Then cook dinner and chill with friends until late.

Doesn’t sounds like those adventure filled Real House Wife of Vancouver, but sure makes me feel like this is the life style of a wife should be.  I should have fill the afternoon with cleaning something or doing some house chores, but I was rather tired having to wake up at 6am.  I sure do miss work, but I also enjoy this new life.  It’s different from all my years before.  It’s rather enjoyable.  The only deadline of the day is to get dinner ready by about 6pm for my hungry hard working husband.  One deadline per day is good!!

For the days-off to come, it will be filled with cooking and scrapbooking (preparations).  The goal of this weekend is to give my pasta attachment a try.  I think I will only do the first try with my husband.  I don’t feel confident to cook dinner for all my friends by eating failure pasta.

The Boathouse – Lobster Feast

J had been saying he wanted to eat lobster for awhile.  Knowing that we don’t want to eat Chinese lobsters (we ate a lot of those during our 2 wedding banquet after party), so I suggested that we go to The Boathouse for it’s Lobster Feast. 

First to come was a house made sour dough bread with herb butter. The bread is definitely very fresh. The herb butter is rather light to stand with the warm sour dough bread.

Seafood Chowder. Very creamy and filled with lots of seafood. A bit expensive closer to $10 for a bowl.

Lobster Bisque. The soup was pour into the bowl on the table. The bowl has a cracker topped with lobster meat in the middle. Creamy bisque, but just a little weak on the lobster taste. I have taste stronger bisque before with a little more seafood after taste than this version.

Lobster Mixed Grill: stuffed 4 oz. lobster tail, fire-grilled prawn & scallop skewer, with a wild sockeye filet. The 4 oz. tail look very impressive until we cut into it… The shell was completely empty. The only meat is the ones sitting on top of the shell. The stuffing I can do without. I have to say, I am rather disappointed. Maybe I should have gone to eat Chinese lobsters instead. Despite all that, J was rather satisfy just to eat a few bites of this lobster.

An air-view of the Mixed Grill. I have to say, I can do without the lobster and everything else on the plate is very good. The shrimp is very tender. The salmon is not over cooked. The wild rice has a bit of the grilled seafood juices. The scallop is fresh and well cooked.

Calamari. I appreciate the 2 sauces. The darker sauce is more Asian tasting with a kick to it. Nonetheless, what’s with the amount of green onions tangling with all the delicious calamari?? Fine, I will eat it together with such fresh and big calamari.

Overall, I think the seafood is good in the Boathouse, but not the lobster.  I don’t really feel the lobster is really that good that I will call it a feast. I will go for Chinese lobster any day.  Yet, I will most definitely return for the seafood chowder and the calamari (tangled with green onion).

Coffee Chocolate Chip Shortbread Cookies

I made these cookies back in February and it was a big hit in both mine and J’s work place.  I had these cookies last year during my Medical Office Assistant Program mini graduation.  A classmate made them for the graduation pot luck.  They were amazing cookies with my office favourites – coffee and chocolate.  Who wouldn’t want them.  So the opportunity come to make something for my office potluck, I ask classmate MF for the recipe and make it on my own.  Here is the original recipe: http://smittenkitchen.com/blog/2007/12/espresso-chocolate-shortbread-cookies/  Aside from Smitten Kitchen’s recipe, the following are my own notes about the cookies.

Sifting the icing sugar is very important!! The icing sugar has lots of lumps and sifting help to ensure good mixing with the butter.

Mix mix mix!! Mix for 1.5 minute, stop, and scrape the mixing bowl. Then mix again for another 1.5 minute. 3 full minutes of mixing is very very very important. It was stressed by Anna Olson from Food TV when she made hers.  Even if the full 3 minute couldn’t get everything mixed well, just leave it.  Over mixing isn’t good either.

Fit the zip lock bag into a big bowl to make it easy to put all the dough into the bag.

Zip Lock bag is your friend to store your cookies in the fridge.

Golden bottom after it is baked. Beautiful!

A quick cool by the balcony door. I think I was trying to tell the whole neighbourhood that I was making shortbread cookies.

These cookies are good!!  They disappeared very quickly.  J’s co-worker said they love it’s in a bite size 1 inch by 1 inch.  Easy to pop in the mouth while you are the go.

Aside from the cookies, it is an exciting to use my Kitchen Aid mixer for the first time.  Thanks to my friends (S, P, G, D, A) for getting it for my wedding.  Especially to get it with the pink that I love!!  I don’t think I will be able to ever life without it.  It creams butter and stiffen egg whites easily on its own without any effort from me.

Moderne Burger

With recommendations from co-workers, J, M, and I went to Moderne Burger after work.

It’s a very beautiful and classical dinner.  I felt my first step was stepping into a TV set or maybe I have cross over to some time zone.  In a small simple burger menu, it wasn’t hard to pick what we are going to order.

Cola Float – Significant amount creamy vanilla ice cream on top of the cola. It has sufficient amount to mix with the cola in a 1 to 1 ratio. Creamy float.

Chocolate Malt Milk Shake: Delicious!! the shake is just the right consistency – not too thick to sip but not too watery as a smoothy. It is not like other milk shake that is frozen when you drink half way and you end up scooping up ice cream more than milk shake.  Having it malt makes the chocolate extra delicious. Its like drinking a liquid Maltesers.

A regular milk shake has whip cream and cherry on top.

Moderne Steak Burger: It’s a fresh burger filled with fresh veggies. For a burger with fries that cost less than $10, this is well worth it. I enjoy this more than the other famous burgers in Vancouver V**a’s. And you can really tell the burger is super fresh by the lack of extra juices dripping out of the burger. The burger was very moist, but the moisture stay within and not dripped all over you and your plate.  And the fries are very crispy and fresh.

For a very simple menu in a prime location of West Broadway, this classic burger is amazing.  With an added bonus of having such a good burger with good fries within $10, who can ask for more except you fill yourself up with a smooth milk shake.  This is now my No.1 burger and shake place.

Purdy’s Mini Sweet Georgia Browns

Beautifully wrapped for Valentine’s Day

I received this beautiful box of Purdy’s chocolate on Valentine’s day for an unexpected gentleman.  No, it’s not J, it was someone else.  When I opened it, I was a bit haunted by the amount of caramel.  I don’t really like caramel because it sticks to the teeth.  J and I took a second look at the box  and said, “we will just brush our teeth after, then let’s eat!”

It was not easy to take the chocolates out.  The caramel sticks to the container.  When the chocolate came out, you can see the soft caramel coming out.

We were at this point very frightened.  With the toothbrush at hand, we proceed to eat it.  We ate one and then we proceed to eating a second.  They are highly ADDICTIVE!!  It was salty and sweet.  A little bit of chocolate combine the walnut and caramel together makes an amazing bite.  The caramel was very soft, but does not stick hard into the teeth.  After chewing all the hard walnut, the caramel was no where found on the teeth.  Further inspection of the chocolate, it has a lot of walnut in each piece.  And the walnut has a sprinkle of salt on it.

I have to say this chocolate is amazing.  The mini size is small enough as a bite size.  The salty sweet balance makes this 1 bite to be an addictive chocolate heaven.  I will not buy the large version, but I will definitely return to buy the mini version.

Proud to be Clean!!!

Kind of clean kitchen floor.

I am proud to have a clean kitchen as of today (kind of).  With Mom-in-law coming back to Vancouver in less than 1 month, I found motivation to give the kitchen a massive clean.  It was definitely hard work.  I cleaned the floor and the range hood.  I was sweating and gasping for air as if I am doing intense yoga.  Maybe I don’t clean it regularly, I have a lot of scrubbing to do everywhere.

This hard work could not be done without my trusty help of Mr. Clean scrubbing eraser and Swiffer Wet Jet.  Mr. Clean was so helpful to help me clean all the sticky oil stuck on the range hood.  Just water on the eraser, and a few rub, the sticky oil came off.  An honorable mention is the trusty surgical latex gloves.  I definitely hate using the regular cleaning gloves.  The surgical type definitely give me sufficient dexterity to clean tiny areas.  Maybe I should turn my blog to a cleaning supplies review blog!

And you may ask where J fit into this picture.  He is a supportive husband who let me buy any cleaning supplies that I need to use and always run to rescue me whenever he hears loud noises from the cleaning area.  What else can I ask for??  At least he takes the vacuum and toilet duties.

The range hood actually have Chinese characters to say it’s the Sakura brand engraved into the hood itself.

One of the biggest learning after this experience is “I am a wife who clean and scrub and cook!!”  I never found myself doing it before marriage.  Now I appreciate how much my mom does cleaning and how hard it is.  I am exhausted just to clean the kitchen today.  Being a wife isn’t easy.  It’s not just the beautiful dress you wear on the wedding day.  It’s about the hard work after the wedding day.  Cleaning definitely is a weakness for me.  I think my afternoon effort can only produce an 80% clean kitchen.  There are still some dirt here and there I still have to work on.  I hope my mama will be proud of me, despite she is most likely say why didn’t I clean before.