BITS AND BITES 05.07

[ thumb-sized "chocoatcan" cookies... without the oats ]

• Always nice coming home, coming back to my place...
• After a long day of work, home's one of two things I look forward to seeing.
• (The other thing's E... in case you couldn't guess.)
• And yesterday, I came home to no cookies.
• So clearly, E. had to come home to cookies. 
• Lots of cookies.
• Cookies for the next year roomie.
• Cookies for this year's roomies.
• Cookies for my work buddies.
• Cookies for E!
• And obvs, cookies for me.
• It's Monday! Monday mush. I mean, brain mush...

Clearly, lovely readers, you've got to write me something serious and thoughtful back... Like how does ink come out of pens?

BITS AND BITES 04.29

[ latte bowls from anthropologie ]

• week 2 of work? done!
• and I've been a UCLA alumna for FIVE weeks now? how did that happen?
• someone counted. UCLA's class of 2012 is less than 50 days away from walking.
• tick tock.
• time to bond with friends over food and wine.
• aka potlucks with fertilized duck eggs, chocolate covered strawberries, tri-tip, and other fancy things college students shouldn't know how to make.
• time to grow out of the college apartment.
• aka time to buy a coffee table (funny story), a bookcase (awesome story), and some beautiful bowls from Anthropologie.
• time to love, love, love every last bit of being a UCLA college student.
• even if it means waking up at 8am on a saturday morning to hit the gym, and then taking a bus to marina del rey to kayak for $5.
• had we but world enough, and time - andrew marvel, "to his coy mistress"

BITS & BITES 04.15

[ caribbean chocolate macaroon from pasadena's lette ]

• Happy, happy tax day! Not...
• But thankfully, I'm worth nothing in the eyes of the government!
• Taxes filed easily and early, equally worthless friends and I spend the day before taxes are due in lovely Pasadena and enjoy foods from Bird Pick, Aux Delices, Cheesecake Factory, and Lette.
• Yes, I sometimes eat at everyday chain, suburban restaurants like Cheesecake Factory, especially when the view is gorgeous.
• We also do some shopping, and apartment-mate and I score a Rabbit wine toolkit (includes waiter's corkscrew, pourer/stopper and wine/champagne sealer) at Sur La Table for $8. Win!
• The inaugural use of this toolkit? To seal a bottle of $2 chardonnay from Whole Foods that had previously been sealed with plastic wrap. Classy, right?
• But there is a bottle of cabernet sauvignon from Bonterra Vineyards in our kitchen, and lots of goodies from the Brentwood Farmer's Market, like mozzarella balls and heirloom tomatoes and heirloom carrots. Clearly, a dinner party is in order.
• We've got a lot to celebrate... like taxes!... and the job that I start tomorrow!
• Oh my gosh, a job... nine-to-five! Excited but terrified about becoming a full-fledged adult...
• Gosh, being 21 has been all about growing up.
• Aka growing pains... A lot, a lot of growing pains.
• But eventually comes love and peace and happiness -- aka chocolate, raspberry and coffee macaroons. Yum.
• Er, not macaroons... But friends and families! Yes, families... Family family, Bruin family and work family...
• Aka the people who spend all night in the rain with you to score amazing seats to Spring Sing 2012.

Your turn. How was your week(end)? Hopefully, it was just as lovely as mine.

BITS AND BITES 04.02

[ a big bowl of my mom's banh canh ]

Ever made plans? Ever made plans and watched as they got crushed? Fun times, right?

As E often accuses me of, I am not the most flexible person out there... I like making plans and I like sticking to my plans! 


That applies to cooking too. I'm absolutely terrible at making things up as I go along, and I'd probably die on Chopped but my momma makes it look all so easy.


Case in point? When all my plans for whale watching got screwy, I got to make banh canh with my momma instead. All made from scratch -- stock, noodles, crab balls, fish sausage, everything! (Crab balls and shrimp sausage make you wrinkle your nose? Sorry, I can't think of other ways of describing them. You should learn Vietnamese!)

Momma does this with no recipe. She likes to throw it all together and taste it as it goes along -- and somehow, no matter what, her dishes always turn out perfectly.

Don't you just hate those people? I sure am jealous. I need recipes, structure, plans... And even then, things can go amiss. Boo.

So here's to making plans, making no plans -- let's just enjoy life this week! (I'm already failing, as I've just graduated and I can't sit around with nothing to do.)

BITS AND BITES 03.10

Hi, hello! How are you? 

Me? I've been good. Here are bits and bites of my past week, as well as of my current thought process.

• Been mulling over The Almost Foodie - where it's going, what I'm doing, etc.
• Did you know that I used to really rock graphic design?
• But the normal side of me said, "No, no, be normal. Go to college. Major in something serious/real/etc."
• Whoops. Definitely did not major in anything serious/real/etc.
• But loved, loved, loved my time at UCLA. GO BRUINS.
• Now if only I knew where I was off to next...

Okay, so maybe I'm a little nutty at the moment, but truthfully, I don't know where this blog's going to go (hence, the lack of posts). Heck, I don't know where I'm going to go.

Any advice? A message to God, universe, strangers on the street and Internet: Feeling like a lost soul at the moment.