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After baking brownies successfully, I got encouraged enough to try baking biscotti. The Italians traditionally like to pair it with wine, and since my fiance, John, is a big wine drinker, I thought “hey, why not bake something he can drink wine with?”

So I found this recipe online and tried baking it the first time five days ago. I did exactly everything the recipe calls for, but the dough was dry and it was difficult to form a log. The end result tasted fine, but it was a little too dry and too hard. As I read the reviews for this recipe, I found out that other people also had the same problem. Luckily I only made a little for a tester.

Last night, I gave it another try, with some modifications. I cut down on flour, added milk to the mixture so it wouldn’t be so dry, and I also cut down the baking time a bit. Oh the whole house smelled SO GOOD!

This time around the biscotti are crisp, but not dry or hard, and they look better as well. Yay! I consider the second run a success!

Now they are sitting in an airtight container, ready to go to Las Vegas with me to see John later on today.

In the evening of August 11th, 2008,

Something historical happened…

I baked for the first time!!!

The lucky choice of sweet was…

Brownie!!!

My house was filled with the delightful aroma,

and it turned out really, really well!

I cut out four pieces to serve with milk.

I had one piece, while the other three went to my brother’s tummy.

He gave me two tumbs up!

Hehe, I am so proud of myself!

While having lunch at a Vietnamese restaurant in Las Vegas with friends, I saw that the TV there was broadcasting some food channel, showcasing a restaurant in Taipei, Taiwan. There was this golden soup that looked very yummy. The TV was in mute mode, but from reading the subtitle, I knew that the ingredients were chicken, pumpkin, apple, and onion.

So I tried cooking the dish myself, based on the little information I have, and was so impressed with myself because the soup turned out soooooo well! I am soooooooo happy!

It’s very simple. Here’s what I did. Read the rest of this entry »

Karen Cheng the online goddess started Doing the Karen Cheng on facebook, and, being a big Karen Cheng fan, I just had to follow. Yeah, I am one of those crazy people.

It just happened so that I wanted spend some time by myself after work today, so I went to Downtown Brea, which is pretty close to where I work. It’s where I frequently go when I want to unwind after work. There are some pretty nice shops there, and I’ve always enjoyed going there to window shop after work. Strolling around in a pedestrian-friendly atmosphere can be very relaxing. Having music and water fountain and nice shops there just makes it even nicer!

So, I made my way to Anne Taylor Loft today and totally adored myself way too much with my camera in front of the dressing room mirror. I was trying out the Karen Cheng pose, the signature head tilt, and see if I can remotely be that cool….

I ended up taking 40+ pics, both inside the individual dressing room, and outside in front of the big mirror when the associate wasn’t looking. That was one heck of a fun hour, although all 40+ pics have one common problem — they don’t look Karen Cheng enough.

Conclusion? Karen Cheng is way cooler than me. Ha~

Like many ladies out there (please tell me there are many others who do this), I like to try on different things from time to time — just to see how it looks! Hey, that’s how you know, right? If you don’t explore, how do you find what works? How do you branch out of our fashion comfort zone? I don’t wear prints that often, but seeing the chic style, hey, I like it, so I tried it on.

I don’t think I quite pull off the Karen Chen look, or get the head tilt in this shot. Like I said, Karen Cheng is way cooler.

Karen Cheng does close-up mirror shots quite often too, so here’s my attempt at it. I took many where I looked at the camera versus the mirror, because that’s what Karen Cheng does, but alas, I look weird not looking into the mirror…

Like I said, she is way cooler….

So this one, smilling at the mirror, is a mirror self-protrait with signature Catherine Yu smile.

Yeah, that’s my real name.

And by the way, that dress is now in my closet. Got it for $31.00. Not bad. It’s a nice addition of colors to my wardrobe.

At around 9pm tonight, John said “hey, do you want to go get some coffee?”

So we went to a local Starbucks, ordered two cups of coffee, and sat down to chat for a good hour or so. I love spontaneous moves like this.

We talked about our wedding … how many bridesmaids I’ll have … when and where are we going to get our wedding photos done…

We’ll pick up my engagement ring next Sunday. Honestly, I can’t wait! I asked John to inscribe some personal message for me in the inner circle of the custom-made ring, and I really can’t wait to find out what it is! We’ve also started looking for a venue for our wedding. Obviously, we are still at the very early stage of planning, but it seem that our wedding will be in April 2009.

It all seems so surreal. Can I really be this lucky?

Yvonne at work told me about her big discovery last night — her cat has been chewing her gum for years!

Yup! Her cat chews gum! And knows how to spit it out too!

She caught her in the act,  and finally realized how those tiny chew marks on her gum wrapping paper were made, and how her gum always mysteriously disappear. For years she thought it was her husband!!

For years she also has been giving credit to her husband for her cat’s minty breath. She thought her husband gave her mouth spray or something. Haha, now she knows.

Funny how smart our little companions are.

At work, a few of us ladies always congregate each morning before we decide to get started on the day.

This morning I was talking to Yvonne, whom I went out for lunch at Souplantation with. Although she is very petite, she claims that she can eat. For lunch yesterday, we each had a plate full of healthy salad, a serving of non-creamy soup, and a tiny bit of pasta. Neither of us had desert or fruits or ice cream. At the end of lunch, I felt just right, but she felt too full, to a very exaggerated extent that she almost couldn’t drive back to work.

She informed me this morning that she has gained 5 pounds from yesterday’s salad lunch. FIVE POUNDS!?!?!? I looked at her with bewildered eyes. How can this girl gain 5 pounds from one day of salad? Then she said “I don’t understand how you can stay in shape by going there (meaning Souplantation) so often”. Well, I don’t understand how she can gain five pounds from one day of salad lunch. Slow metabolism?

Truth is that I go to the gym and work out like there’s no tomorrow when I sense I am about to gain weight. Yes, I can sense it (always scary accurate too), and then I’ll go run for a crazy 5 miles on the trademill, on top of weights and sit-ups and maybe some swimming too. I used to go to the gym three to four times a week, but ever since I stopped doing that about a year ago, this sporadic crazy work out routine has served me pretty good. 

Although… this is not to say I shouldn’t return to the gym on a more regular basis.

I wore this dress to see LA Opera’s production of Tristan und Isolde. It was a great performance! I fully enjoyed the music and the set and the singing, but the spotlight here is not the opera. It’s the dress.

Guess how old this dress is?

Let me tell the story first before I give away the answer. I was on a bus, cruising along Haight Street in San Francisco, when this lavendar dress in the display window of a cute vintage shop caught my attention. When I saw it I immediately thought “oh wow… I wonder if that will fit me?”. I kept on thinking about that dress throughout the trip.  Then, on my last day there, I decided that I must make visit that vintage dress shop, even though I’ve never brought anything “vintage” before. The lady took that dress off of the mannequin in the display window. I took it to the dressing room, tried it on, was very happy with the fit and impressed by the good condition that it’s in despite its age, so it became mine for $67 dollars. Ha, that was my first time buying anything “vintage”. It really doesn’t look that old, plus the feminine design still goes well with today’s tend. I especially love the ribbon crisscrossing in the front!

So how old is this dress?

Answer… it’s a 1932 or 1933 Helen Bencker dress, so it’s over 75 years old!

I am not too much of an odd ball for wearing a vintage dress, right? Well, John likes it, plus no one at the opera gave me weird looks…