January 28, 2011

in my dream

I always wanted to re-visualize a part of a scene in my dream.
Some can be creative that you just don't want to forget. I usually just sketch it in in my sketchbook but after watching Inception, it inspired me to do quick illustration of it.

- Magic House -
This dream, where I was in kindergarten room sitting at carpet area, imagined toys to appear in front of me. Then these solid colored miniature houses slowly rises from the ground, the room becomes empty world where everything you see are colorful miniature houses with horizon line.

in my dream

January 24, 2011

simmered and baked chicken drumstick

This is one of my made up recipe I use quite often.

1. Simmer chicken drumsticks using boiled water(enough to cover the whole drumsticks) and soy sauce(1/2cup) and sugar(1cup). Sugar makes meat extra soft so I let it boil until chicken almost falls off the bone.
2. Place drumsticks on oven tray and brush on the drumstick with your favorite chicken sauce(Mine is: 2tbsp honey + 3tbsp soy sauce + 1/2tbps sesame oil + 1/2tbsp vinegar). 3. Set the oven to Broil and bake for 2min, turn the drumsticks and apply the sauce. Repeat that until the skin is golden brown.
4. Garnish with sesame seeds and sliced green onion.
5. For veggie I used boiled spinash. <--Any extra chicken sauce pour on spinach for extra flavor.

chicken drumstick

January 20, 2011

iced tea~

I bought a set of clear glass cups~ I never owned one and was really excited about using it so I made my own iced tea with Tazo's Passion tea.

I didn't know Passion gives this nice bright red!
Here is a quick recipe:

Homemade iced tea:
- 1 tea bag (any flavor) I use Tazo tea
- glass cup filled with ice and sliced lemon on top
- 1 or 2 cups of boiled water
- 2~3(or more) tbsp honey or maple syrup or sugar

1. Boil water and simmer with tea bag for 2~3min.
2. Discard tea bag and add sweetener until fully dissolved.
3. Pour tea into the glass cup and ta-da~

Tazo's passion iced tea

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January 18, 2011

cupcake season

Every year I go buy Starbuck's cupcakes around this season. Before they used to only have it on Valentine season but seems like they have it regularly now?

Having cupcake in Valentine season is my thing now so I wait when this time comes~ Yummy!

Can't say no to Starbuck's cupcake~

January 13, 2011

classic jewish chicken soup

I made classic Jewish chicken soup the other day.
Everything went well up to the point where I was waiting for the soup to finish simmering, I realize something was dripping from the ceiling. I look up and the entire kitchen ceiling was soaked! All that simmering condensed my ceiling. I live in a ghetto apartment that doesn't have fan above my stove. The water was dripping a lot from the ceiling so I quickly grabbed papertowel to absorb all the droplet and pulled out my dehumidifier and a fan. Luckly soup was safe.

So the bottom photo, that's how soaked the ceiling was. It literally looked like thick paint leaving droplets.

The soup was very yummy! Dill makes soup delicious~

classic jewish chicken soup

my ceiling

January 11, 2011

yoga calender

My mom gave me this cool looking yoga calender from Japan. The paper is from Nepal, thinner than rice paper. Each pages are hand screened and painted~ Very cute drawing~
Supposedly it's a really popular calender in Japan for people who does yoga. They reuse the design every year.

So each pages has 2 months calender with different category. Jan/Feb(3rd photo) has poses that's good for your blood circulation in your brain. The 4th photo are poses to release muscles on your neck and shoulders.

The bottom photo is mini yoga in office. Now let's all try~

this year's calender~

the sun pose

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mini office yoga

January 8, 2011

simple granola

I made simple granola over the holiday~ It only has oatmeal in it because that was the only dry ingredient I had with me.

I was curious to make this because I usually eat Nature Vally granola bar but one time I had Kashi's granola bar. Both of them tastes so different from each other so I wanted to see what it's like if it's homemade version.

Turns out all 3 of them tastes different and they're all good in different way. If you're a sweet tooth Nature Vally granola is perfect for you. For opposite people, Kashi granola is better. I've been used to eating Nature Vally that it actually feels like Kachi is missing something because it's so clean and has neutral taste.

As for homemade granola, you keep snacking until they're gone.

in a jar

homemade granola

yogurt parfait

January 3, 2011

Happy rabbit year

How was everyone's holiday? I spent my holiday back in hometown spending time with friends/family and completing an old ps2 game "OKAMI". Beautiful game! I'm ready to play Okamiden now~

Happy rabbit year~