Archive for the ‘Weekly Wanderings’ Category
Feeding my lavender obsession with pretty sachets to put everywhere.
Fallen flowers.
This heat though. *melts*
Venturing into the world of smoothies. This one – chocolate + kale. Not bad…
The view from where I’ve permanently melted.
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Links I’ve loved lately:
Important life skills
Beauty
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Things I want to eat:
I’m intrigued by these thousand layer chocolate chip cookies.
This is the kind of decadence I want in my breakfast sandwiches.
I’ve been keeping an eye out for delicious-sounding vegan recipes lately, so this vegan pho piqued my interest.
Asian ice cream flavors are the best.
Seriously tempted to buy a spiralizer just so I can make this for breakfast.
I definitely would enjoy the heck out of this red bean bread.
I am of the belief that KFC stands for Korean Fried Chicken (although the other kind is pretty darn tasty too).
These fancy s’mores are so elegant!
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We don’t have a BBQ at our apartment, so grilling was never something that really happened here. But then we got one of those stovetop grill pan things (kind of like the ones you see at some KBBQ restaurants)… let the grilling commence!
As celebration for launching Fridgg v2 last week, we grilled up a bunch of KBBQ meats and veggies (what a fun meal that was) (yet somehow I neglected to get a single photo). Then, I happened to have this packet of shrimp spices from the Baltimore Spice Box from Raw Spice Bar (which they sent me for free), so we went and bought some raw shrimp to grill.
Oh man… those shrimp were tasty! Messy deliciousness, as it should be. Son ate them shell-on (so Asian), I ate half of mine shell-on and peeled the other half (because I’m half-Asian? hah!), and we both dipped them in mayonnaise (because, obviously). A very fun, very excellent meal.
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We’ve been getting the weirdest weather in LA this summer. Storms, warm, muggy fog, and now random drenching rain on sunny days! Man, this global warming…
… although it kind of made it feel like we were in Hawaii, so I can’t complain too much?
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Extended family came to visit from out of town, so we all got together for a family dinner.
I brought a green bean potato salad, and garlic zucchini.
… and then got roped in to help make a butternut squash soup.
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At the end of the week, ended up at our favorite dim sum place with my mom and aunt. This time, they happened to have these BBQ pork fried mochi, so of course I had to try one. Greasy deliciousness!
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Links I’ve loved lately:
The worst (best) dad joke
Openly talking about mental illness (pun not intended)… it’s important
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Things I want to eat:
This homemade coconut pumpkin spice latte makes me want to snuggle up in warm fuzzy clothing on a rainy day with a good book. To bad I live in LA where it’s blazing hot outside…
Ramen… for breakfast? YES. (omg)
Peanut butter cup baked oatmeal. Yeah, I could get behind that.
Have I mentioned lately how I’m weirdly obsessed with lavender?
I love my root beer floats… but now I really want to switch it up and try this pineapple ginger beer ice cream float.
OMG indeed…
Last week I had black sesame dumplings for the first time, and now I want to try making them at home.
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I skipped last week’s Weekly Wanderings because I literally had not taken a single photo all week. Not one.
But I had a good reason for it! The last few months, Son and I have been working on a relaunch of Fridgg, with a brand-new design and whole new backend (using React and Node.js, for anyone who cares). The last week was a huge push to just get it finished and released to the public, so it was a whole week of nothing but coding for clients and coding for Fridgg in every single free moment.
But we did it! IT’S ALIVE!
We celebrated by cooking Korean BBQ. By ourselves. At home. We’re party people like that.
I finally finished a second potholder! It only took me like half a year.
Eating as much caprese salad as we can before tomato season ends.
Sushi!
Sushi.
Custard imagawayaki (kind of like a grilled sort of mochi-ish cake, filled with custard. very delicious), from Mitsuwa.
We went to our favorite Chinese restaurant again, and for some random reason this time they had a dessert soup that just happened to be ready while we were there, and they served it to all the tables on the house. The soup itself was not bad, but not really my thing (I’m not much of a chrysanthemum fan), but those purple balls? Little mochi balls filled with a sweet black sesame paste. I was OBSESSED. (Seriously, I think I ate as many as Son and his mom combined.)
Happy Labor Day, and have a wonderful week!
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Links I’ve loved lately:
This is soooo good… and also made me cry.
Libraries are important! At one point in time, it was my life goal to read every single book that my little local library had… and I’m pretty sure I probably got through just about the entire kids/young adult fiction section. So many of my childhood memories are at the library, and I would be devastated if my someday kids didn’t have that opportunity.
This made me laugh… because I’ve totally been there.
Who wants to move to Tokyo and take katana lessons for exercise? This girl (*points at self*), that’s who! Who wants to come with me?
I’ve recently started reading more travel blogs (I can’t go anywhere, so I’m living vicariously through others), and this one is one of my favorites. She’s HILARIOUS (her recent post about The Princess Bride also cracked me up), and her posts both temporarily satisfy my wanderlust and also really make me want to go back to Europe.
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In our ongoing search for easy, delicious, healthy foods, we came across this chickpea salad at Whole Foods, and we are in love. Something about the flavor combination just works so well. …and then Son came up with the idea of adding potato chips to it (the black pepper and sea salt flavor is the best) and it became dangerously delicious. And not quite as healthy. But it’s all good, because it’s tasty!
Also, I’ve been experimenting with curries lately. Current recipe: saute some zucchini, add it to a couple of cans of coconut milk, a few tablespoons of green curry paste, a bag of frozen chickpeas, and a couple of bags of frozen spinach. Simmer until warmed through. Serve with basil, fish sauce, and sliced seitan, over rice. Satisfying, and oh so delicious (and SPICY)!
On a walk, we came across the most interesting butterfly. We get monarchs all the time in LA, but I’ve never seen a butterfly that looks like this!
Naturally, I had to celebrate National Lemonade Day, especially since I had managed to go all summer without any lemonade whatsoever. (I know!) This mix of strawberry and mango lemonades hit the spot (and I promise Son wasn’t as grumpy about it as he looks in the photo!)
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Links I’ve loved lately:
Kitchen tips? More like BEST LIFE HACKS EVER. 😀
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When a flight to Japan isn’t an option, Mitsuwa’s food court is a good stand-in. 😀
There’s a “Mochi cream” event going on at the Torrance, CA Mitsuwa right now, so since we were there anyways, we checked it out and tried a few different types.
I always love kinako dango.
The ohagi goma was fantastic, and we loved how they were filled with so much azuki bean.
The shoyu-glazed mochi were a favorite.
This week, I’m reading The City Stained Red
. I’m not far in yet, but definitely enjoying it so far.
My sister was in town for a few days, so we brought back the family dinners we had started going during the spring. Delicious, and tons of fun.
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Links I’ve loved lately:
Have you ever thought that you might want to be a food blogger like me? Then this article is a must read. (Greatest “how to be a food blogger” article ever. 😀 )
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Weekly Wanderings posts may include affiliate links. All opinions are my own.
