Happy Holidays!

This year, we had by far the best Christmas celebration ever. Apart from spending 3 days with our dear friends, we were also invited to their friend's dessert party. What? A dessert party? Yup, countless types of cakes, pies, pastries and appetizers that took more than 10 days to prepare.

Where should I start? Let's start with appetizers - olives, cheese and crackers.

A variety of olives.

Cheese, cheese and more cheese.





The hostess also made her own mushroom pates and pickled her own okras.



Many different types of cookies, almond cookies, ginger cookies, biscottis,  and many more. They have much nicer names but I can't remember all of them. *grin*

What are golf balls? It's an Italian dish. They are cheese wrapped with rice and deep fried.  They're so yummy. Once you pop you can't stop!



Once you finished with the appetizers, let's move on to the desserts! I think we had about 10 cakes and pies, I lost count. Here are just a few of them.



I really like this apple pie, the fruit and the crust are just so yummy!



I didn't expect to like this white chocolate brownies so much! This is one of my favorite!







Precisely hand cut opera cake.



There were way too many desserts and if I were to showcase all of them, I myself probably won't survive this update ... By now, I'm already hungry and hoping that I could take bites after bites into those uber-liscious desserts. *stomach growling.....*

Thanks Fran for the wonderful and amazing out of this world dessert party!



And the extras for the following day!

Thanksgiving

This year I was at New York for Thanksgiving. Here's a summary of my 5-day trip. 

Above are the yummy appetizers that our hostess prepared, crackers with lobster dip and cheese. The dinner also included roasted chicken, vegetables and home made apple pie! Yummmss.....

Our first dinner at NYC. Most of the restaurants in Korea town were packed, at 8pm, most of the restaurants had a half an hour wait list. So we chose the one that had the least people waiting and we still waited for 20 minutes. The food at Miss Korea was really good, we had the pork BBQ marinated in special house sauce, kimchi pancake, spicy dumpling tofu soup, squid and soju! By the time we were done with dinner around 10pm there was still a line waiting outside.

A quick snap shot of Empire State Building on our way back to the hotel.

Took the Staten Island Ferry to see Lady Liberty.

The view from the ferry.

Liberty Island was closed after Sandy's wrath. So the closest way to see her was taking the Staten Island Ferry.

We also visited the 911 Memorial, this was the only way I could include Freedom Tower and the memorial ground in the same photo.

I love Times Square. I love the lights, the billboards and everything dazzling about this place.

Good meals can be affordable in NYC. Prefix  at the Red Cat starts at $25 for lunch. We had garlic fries, steamed clam, burrata (gold and red beets salad), skate, oyster po'boys, omellete, burger, and banana boat! The food was simply splendid. The simple looking banana boat is so yummy, home made vanilla ice cream served with mysterious ingredients that made it taste so unique. Actually the ingredients were really simple, banana, nuts and fruits but there's something else that made it tasted different, salt? 

We were craving for good quality dim sum, we chose Nom Wah because it was the first dim sum place in NY Chinatown. It was cold and we were hungry, the first bite of shrimp dumpling was simply awesome. Not only the shrimp was fresh, the skin of the dumpling was perfect, thin and steamed just right. You can tell that all the dishes were fresh because after years of eating reheated frozen dim sum even at high ranking restaurants, these dim sum tasted just FRESH. I love it that they served using porcelain dishes. The place was so busy that the servers did not even have time to chit chat.

This time, we visited places that I have not been to at NYC. This is the High Line Park. A public park built on a historical frieght line elevated above the streets on Manhattan's West Side. The place was packed with people and it was quite an interesting walk to see the artistic neighborhood filled with art installations and upscale apartments.

I really love the Grand Central Station. The building itself is so beautiful. It looked really different in the movies and in real life. The building is just so magnificent.

I love New York. It's so beautiful, I had such a wonderful trip,  can't wait to go back again. :)

Yodaism

Dear Yoda, you never cease to inspire us. You, I thank you.

Morning Goodness

What's the most important meal of the day? Breakfast of course! One must not skim in order to have a good start of the day. Yelp took us to Harbor Cafe , this quaint little place that not only is dog friendly but serves alcoholic beverages early in the morning. Perfect for dog owners who loves food and alcohol! Plus, they have a doggy menu too!

I ordered something adventurous - Mexican Tofu Scram with vege patty. What? Tofu cooked in Mexican spices? It's really good, I finished the whole plate all by myself. If you're looking for a more cheesy and satisfying dish, do try the Captain's Frittata.  I can't believe I was able to finish the big plate of food and a large glass of pomegranate lime juice! Phew, what a breakfast. :)

Surfing: A New Religion

I think surfing is such a cool idea. To be riding with the waves. However I have no desire in learning how to surf. :)  I think it can be quite a zen thing for some people, to be sitting on the board in the middle of the sea patiently waiting for the waves. It needs passion, dedication and faith. It was such a beautiful day, by 8:30am, a lot of people had come and gone. Done surfing for the day. 

Instead, I chose to walk by the beach, snap a few photos and enjoy the beautiful weather. 

Wedding Bliss

A beautiful couple, a beautiful location, and lots of beautiful people. A wedding filled with beautiful memories.

Jelly Legs

I can barely stand, my legs are sore because I have not ridden a bike for the past 15 years and I actually biked from Fisherman's Wharf to Sausalito Pier all in 3 hour's time. It's too much for one day but seriously, it's so worth it! It took us so long because I had to stop every other mile to snap photos! 

 

We rented bikes at Fisherman's Wharf, then we proceeded to Fort Mason. From Fort Mason we biked towards the bridge.

The wind was quite strong on the bridge, I had to stop suddenly a couple of times when the wind picked up because I couldn't keep my balance.

 

Then it was all the way down slope towards Sausalito. Wheee...luckily my brake works! Haha...

Since it was all the way down towards Sausalito, do you think I could ride all the way back up to the city? No way! So we took the ferry :)

The view of the city from the ferry. It was such a beautiful day, what's missing are my lovely white clouds, but I'm not complaining. With good company and good weather, it was a lovely day out! I'm so happy today! ♥

Wholesome Goodness

Nothing much has changed since I was at Emandal 2 years ago.  [Emandal 2010]
I still love this place, the food, the place, the people and everything about it.
It was a very warm weekend but I had the best time ever, sitting under the fruit trees and relaxed. I read 2 books and 3 magazines in 1 day. I never seemed to have the time to do so even on the weekends when I am at home. This place has a good vibe for relaxation and motivation.

  

This year, instead of camping by the river, we camped in the woods with clean flushsable toilets, running water and hot showers. It felt so good to have a hot and steaming shower at 7 in the morning!

Emandal is a farm on the river, they rear their own animals and plant their own crops. There's Dahlia, our milk provider. There are also llamas, goats, sheep, chickens and even 2 ostriches! There are apple, pear, and walnut trees; golden raspberries, strawberries, just to name a few.

The colors of Emandal change according to the time of the day. It was still very pretty and bright at 9pm. At Emandal, you can either laze around on the green lawn doing nothing, or go down to the river for a swim, or hike up the hill and ring the bell.

The food at Emandal is always so good. They spoiled us with all the wholesome goodness of yummy fresh produce and  super yummy bread and cookies. This trip we had awesome fresh juices, farm made gronolas, chocolate chip bread, peanut butter cookies, polenta, fruit salads, farm made greek yogurt, farm made jams, farm made sausages, fresh pancakes, fresh eggs from the chicken, burrito, burgers, avocado salsa, freshly made ice-cream and chocolate fudge sauce and raspberry cream pie! Look the kids, they always can't wait for the desserts to come at the end of dinner. One boy even commented that "Yea, I think kale is pretty yummy!" 

I thought I would have packed on a few pounds after my trip but I didn't! Because I swam in the river, hiked up and down the campsite and took after meal walks around the farm! Woohoo!! :) 

Emandal, truly inspiring.

Beach. Blue. Beautiful.

The weather is getting warmer, what's better than spending a beautiful afternoon by the beach? Spent a beautiful day by the beach with the honorary Koh twins and their mom J.Luo. :)

Spring

Pacifica

 

 

 

Yahoo! What a beautiful day to go to the beach! BK wanted to go surfing so we went to Pacifica at 8am in the morning for a surfing class. Brrrr....the wind was ICY cold but it got warmer after the sun came out. 

After rolling and tumbling in the water for 2 hours and chilling in the icy wind, it's time to warm up to some wonderful brunch! Off we go to Salada Beach Cafe for some wonderful food. What a treat! I ordered hot cafe au lait with French Roast beans and Bacado breakfast plate (2 scramble eggs, bacon, home fries, cheese, salsa, avocado and rye bread!). BK ordered hot chocolate and Santa Fe omelette (eggs, apple sausages, cheese, mushroom, home fries and wheat bread). Yummmmmmsss..... the food was really good, it's not oily at all, hah! No guilty pleasure there, and the cafe is so cute! I'll be back for sure! Yiipppeeeeeeee :)