It’s Holly

I’ve curbed my addiction to Starbucks a great deal – limiting myself to twice a week. My latest drink of choice (replacing the much missed Iced Honey Latte) is the Starbucks DoubleShot. Simple and good – 3 shots of espresso with classic syrup, shaken and topped off with a little milk (soy, in my case). It gets the job done.

So, on my bi-weekly visits to sbux, there’s a lady that orders a Strawberry water. I had to do a double take and stare the bitch down so I could understand. She ordered a venti water with ice and strawberry syrup, blended. Strawberry flavored ice water. I mean, I can kinda understand. After all, I did grow up broke drinking sugar water (sometimes with kalamansi, hah!). So i wasn’t really mad at her… until she picked up her drink from the bar at asked the dude to top it with whipped cream. I had to pull the sunglasses down my face and look at her. I’m sure my inner monologue showed on my face: Did this bitch just get a cup of water with whipped cream on top?

It cracks me up when people have 3 sentence orders at starbucks (grande 3 1/2 pump 180 degree extra dry soy half caff vanilla latte in a venti cup no whip extra foam on the side blah blah blah), but this chick, with the whipped cream and water, takes the cake.

sigh. post your crazy *bux stories in the comments.

Another Friday Four post about food? Really?

Yes, really.

You don’t even really need to think for this one. It should come easy. If you could choose, what would your absolute last meal on earth be?

1. Appetizer
2. Any specific soup/salad?
3. Main Course
4. Dessert

Happy Friday, bitchessssssssanswer in the comments.

Whoever gets me these… wow. All I can say is “wow”.

Let’s just say, you’d definitely be on my top 12 on Myspace – not just for a week, but for a definite extended period of time.

Ladies and gentleman, the self-professed “Least Kosher Lollipop in the History of Candy”:

Lollyphile : Maple-Bacon Lollipops

From Lollyphile.com:

We feel pretty safe in saying that we’re the first people to ever make a bacon-based lollipop. And not just any bacon, either- we use sustainable, organic, cured bacon- we kinda felt that it went well with the organic Vermont maple syrup we were using as a base, you know?

While we admit that it’s pretty far from the norm (it’s definitely not kosher!), once you make that initial leap of faith and try it out, we’re positive that you’ll love it. The salty chunks of bacon make a delicious and unique counterpoint to the subtle sweetness of the maple, and oh, yeah- you’ll be eating an oh-my-god bacon lollipop!

A perfect gift for the sweet-toothed pork aficianado in your life.

If I wouldn’t be ridiculed for the rest of my life, I might consider legally changing my name to Sweet-Toothed Pork Aficionado.

I feel like they know me on the inside.

Filipinos all over the world are ashamed of me. I’ve lived in my new place going on 3 weeks, and I still don’t have a rice cooker.

::shock, horror, gasp::

Alas, I need a rice cooker. This Cuisinart one is pretty fresh – you can steam fish at the same time.

Gift Idea: Dinner at Zenbu Sushi in La Jolla, which includes (but definitely not limited to) a stuffed pumpkin, a stuffed tomato, the Johnny I roll and the Johnny II roll – which means we have to go on a Friday night because that’s the only time Johnny works. And what’s the point on going to Zenbu if Johnny isn’t there to make the Johnny rolls? Exactly. Oh, and a couple of sake bombs would make the night better.

I know what the people who know me know me are thinking : Holly, you’ll eat at a restaurant who’s logo uses SAND as the typeface?! It might as well be Papyrus or (God forbid) Comic Sans (::gasp!!!::)! Why yes, the sushi is *that* good. Good enough to make me ignore the glaring oversight that is their font.

Hey, ho… let’s go.

Emma decided to host a little dinner party at her casa, which I love because that means I can cook and not have to clean up after.

Our friendly host for the evening.

You can’t start a dinner party without opening the vino first. No one had actually arrived yet, but you can’t cook without a glass of wine in your hand, can you? No, you can’t.

Woohoo

The plan was for everyone to bring their “specialty” dish, with me and Emma taking care of the main dishes. Our menu consisted of Emma’s broiled salmon, my infamous warm bacon blue cheese garlic dip, bacon wrapped asparagus, and my fancy penne with shrimp. Let’s get cookin’.

Cuttin’ up tomatoes for the pasta sauce.

Dip’s done! Keep Emma away, she’ll eat it all.

Megan brough seared ahi wontons with avocado salsa. I’m SO making that.

Emma’s salmon. I didn’t know the bitch could cook, but apparently, she can! Go Em!

My Shrimpy Pasta

Bacon wrapped asparagus, son! By the time it came out the oven, I’m pretty sure there was more bacon than asparagus. I’m not complaining, just stating fact.

That was good.

This is what good wine will do to ya.

All in all, I say it was a very successful dinner party. And with me moving (Oh shit, did I tell you I’m moving? I’m moving) to my own spot, I’m sure we’ll have many more, but I’ll have to clean up after, so that sucks.

Yay, food and friends!

PS. Sorry for all the macro shots. I had wine, remember?

… also known as WAC Fridays. It’s been a couple months since we’ve done it, but alas, it was one of those days.

One brings the wine. One brings the cheese. And we ALL bring the WHINE.

Today was good old garlic and cheese spread, some camembert, those ranch pretzel thingies and some garlic melba toasts (i never said we were high class). Our wines of choice were Pinot Noir and … some other red one.

Again, happy whine and cheese Friday.

I don’t know why, but soufflé has always seemed like the most daunting baking task in the world. Rumors of the kitchen having to be perfectly quiet so the soufflé doesn’t fall is enough to make anyone run. But not me – I don’t run from a [food] challenge. I take that shit head on, son.

So, thanks to some rainy weather and about $15 worth of chocolate, I was determined to make soufflé. I’m not one to *not learn from other people’s mistakes (especially when it involves a lot of chocolate), so I found this blog with this recipe (thanks, tastespotting!).

And so, the task begins.

Melt all that lovely chocolate

It’s hard to believe this started out as 6 egg whites, but lo and behold. Who was the french guy that decided that beating egg whites into an airy submission would be a good thing. You know it was a french guy.

Whisking in a small amount of the whites into the melted chocolate mixture

Ooh, side note. Apparently, you’re supposed to keep the chocolate warm so when you mix in the hot milk mixture, it doesn’t separate. Mine separated. Room temp chocolate + hot milk = fat coming out of chocolate making it really ugly and utterly unusable. Then I whined… “Moooooooom… my chocolate separated!!!” She says “well, put it back together.” Hmm… put it back together. I broke out the hand mixer and whipped it into shape, and sure enough, it went back together. Thanks Mom!

Let’s get it in the oven before I mess something else up…

Alllll set!

Alllll done! I couldn’t believe I got soufflé right on my first try!

And it was a ceramic rammikin of chocolatey dense and airy goodness.

Now, I’m all about soufflés. I think I’d like to try a savory one – cheddar and bacon, perhaps? Smoked gouda and spinach? Endless combinations!

I heart food. I love cooking it. I love eating it. I love sharing it with people I love.

1. What’s your favorite recipe to cook?
2. What food do you absolutely hate?
3. Which do you like more, cooking or baking?
4. Pick a starch: Macaroni & Cheese or Mashed Potatoes?

Answer in the comments. Happy Frickin’ Friday.

I love Wikipedia. The day I found out that you could type in “wp [what you're looking for]” into the Firefox address bar as a shortcut to get to WP, I peed a little from sheer excitement. Before I discovered StumbleUpon, Wikipedia was (and still is, really) my go to portal for educational entertainment. I was almost amazed how I could start by looking up “blue cheese” and an hour later end up on an article about the Declaration of Independence, just from clicking links within the pages (true story).

Needless to say, sometimes you just don’t know what to look up. That’s when I use the handy dandy “Random Article” link. Sometimes it links me to boring little pages about countries in Eastern Europe, but sometimes you hit the jackpot and get THIS ARTICLE.

Did you read it yet? Okay, you don’t have to read the whole thing, but at least click on it then come back.

Back?

Yeah, I know what you’re thinking. That exists? Well, it’s legit enough to be in Wikipedia, so SOMEONE out there is doing it, right? I call this another case of Crazy White People.