Winter at the Park

Fall/Winter Leaves
Fall/Winter Leaves
Crazy!  Really Crazy!
The temperature change has got us bundling up in thermals, but the red and orange leaves are actually quite beautiful.  and the lake is actually pretty quiet.  I'm really quite amazed with my camera phone too.  It took really good pictures, so I took random photographs of everything at the park yesterday.
The sun wasn't even peeking at all and I could feel the cold in my hands.  So after taking the last photograph of the sun peeking through the trees (I was really excited that the rays showed up), I curled up in the bed of the truck with a blanket and large back pillow and read.
After a nice long day at the park, I went home with the intent of baking and trying out a new recipe.  Instead of making chocolate chip cookies, I wanted to substitute the chocolate chips with peppermint bark.  The first batches came out right, but then the next batch really sucked.  It stuck to the pan and the dozen and half went straight to the ice cream topping jar I have.  The next batch, I sprayed my sheets with PAM, so the melted peppermint won't stick.  It worked, but I think instead of using peppermint bark, I'll use Andes mints the next time.

Post a comment Tags: photography, baking, nature

Homemade Lava Cake

It's winter!  It's cold!  I love this weather.  As many of you know, I grew up in cold weather and the warm and sweltering weather in the California Valley where our temperatures reach three digits Farenheit, I am ecstatic the winter season here arrived.  It's time to take out my sweaters, jackets, scarves, hats, gloves, etc!  I'm in my element.


So, with the winter season being here, I'm itching to bake.  Last week, Mike wanted me to make the lava cake.  But after looking at my recipe book, I found that making the inside of the center of the lava cake takes a while since the melted chocolate must cool for at least two hours!  Needless to say, he was disappointed and I was more disappointed because I wanted to make it.

But today was a different story. I knew how long it was going to take so I started making the filling for the cake at 3:00  PM.  Yes, I gave myself some time.   I washed all my ramekins, took out my heavy duty mixer, and started prepping for the next step. 

The filling didn't take that long to make.  Maybe 10 minutes tops on a double broiler.  The cake itself didn't take that long either.. about 20 minutes tops.
As I poured the batter into the ramekins, I could see Mike salivating in the dining room.  He couldn't wait and after the crap we had to go through with Sport Chalet, this was a welcomed treat!
I'm a pretty happy person, now that the cake's done!  It was so good.  Mike added vanilla ice cream to his and I ate mine with soy milk!

Post a comment Tags: baking, good eats

Japanese Night

After putting some gruelling hours in Scuba at Sport Chalet this morning, I've got a hankering for some good sushi and since the Japanese Grocery store is close to my house, we stopped by to get some stuff for a Japanese Food Night.


Mike was craving a Tsunomono salad that we had at Oshima Sushi just a couple of months ago.  It's composed of tuna and another type of fish.  He made the salad... it was yummy!
See the chunks of tuna and to make it more healthier, Mike added some Tofu to the mix as well.  He got his salad, but I wanted spicy tuna and the sauce for the spicy tuna calls for Japanese Mayo and chili.  I don't have Japanese Mayo so, I went and bought Japanese mayo.  It's really funny how it's packaged and what's more crazy is that it has to be consumed in 30 days after opening.
Of course, with any Japanese food, we needed to buy some masago and tobiko.  What's even more crazier is that they have wasabi tobiko!  It may look green...but it tastes great!
Here's our set-up for dinner.  It's make your own sushi night!!

Post a comment Tags: good eats

Orange Pumpkin Cupcakes

Lately it seems that I've been on a cupcake craze.  I want to make cupcakes all the time, but the truth of the matter is that it's winter and I can fire up my double ovens whenever I want.


Since baking the dark chocolate espresso cupcakes, I wanted to make an orange pumpkin cupcake, but there aren't any recipes out there.  So, the experimentation began.  Someone told me that I should add some orange zest and allspice to the batter, but that's not really pumpkin-y.  So I decided that I would use canned pumpkin and orange extract to make the batter.  

The recipe turned out pretty well.  It wasn't disgusting.  It was actually good, but it didn't turn out to be a cupcake, it was more like a muffin.  Oh well, it still tasted good though.  Mike had one every morning for breakfast...


Post a comment Tags: baking, good eats

Archeology - Another iPhone Cozy Made

I'm doing my homework one Friday morning in my office as well as trying to organize my fabrics, yarn, etc. so that I have room to spread out my books.  As I'm organizing and trying to find a package of post-it tabs to mark my notes, I see a plastic bag shoved behind my fabric bins.  I get on my knees and crawl underneath the desk and moved all of my boxes, curious as to what is in the white plastic bag.  When I finally get all the bins oiut, I found a bag full of felt.  There must be over fifty pieces of felt in the bag.  Jackpot!  I was saving most of the felt that I have in one of my bins for other projects that I'm working on.  Little did I know, I have more.  So, the homework was hastily casted aside and my mind began spinning on how to make use of the extra felt.  Then it hit me... make more iPhone cozies.


Archeology really is the best thing.

I finished the cozy about a couple months ago and really haven't had the time to post it on Facebook and on my blog.


Post a comment Tags: crafts, hc studio

Cupcake Mania

For a couple of weeks now I've wanted to bake and experiment with cupcakes.  There was a cupcake recipe on my Ghirardelli Recipe book for Dark Chocolate cupcakes.  I reinvented the recipe by adding really strong coffee.  I wasn't at all scared at how it would taste like.  It's not going to be dramatic nor will it change the the consistency of the cupcake.  I figured nothing could go wrong with coffee and I was right.  The hint of coffee flavour mixed with the chocolate was positively scrumptious.


I also loved the new cupcake liners that Reynold's Brand came out with.  No more of that horrid looking pastel coloured cc liners.  I hate those liners!  Thanks to Reynold's for inventing something bold but inexpensive liners!

I tried taking a photograph of my finished product, but I'm not used to the Sony Camera that I'm using.  The camera is quite a bit old and my favourite camera went to Christina since hers tanked.  I just can't wait to get my Nikkon Cool Pix point and shoot camera that would take better photos than this.  After that, I'm going into the wonderful world of SLR cameras!!

Post a comment Tags: baking

Vampire Diaries: The Awakening & the Struggle

Synopsis:  

The Vampire Diaries: The Awakening and The Struggle
The Vampire Diaries: The Awakening and The Struggle
L. J. Smith

Elena:  The Golden Girl, the leader, the on who can have any boy she wants.

Stefan:  Brooding and mysterious, he seems to be the only one who can resist Elena, even as he struggles to protect her from the horrors that haunt his past.

Damon:  Sexy, dangerous, and driven by an urge for revenge against Stefan, the brother who betrayed him.  Determined to have Elena, he'd kill to possess her.

My Rating:  8.5 out of 10

Review:  I rated this book 8.5 out of 10 since it was slow to start.  It seemed a though that the story is a typical teenage story of who is "Queen Bee" and does not want to be dethroned.  But as I continued to read, I found that it is not the case.  It was slightly hard to start, but as the novel progresses, you find yourself captivated and in Elena's shoes.  The book seemed a little more darker than most teenage vampire love stories.  It is somewhat similar to the Sookie Stackhouse series.  I still definitely recommend reading the book, but do not recommend watching the CW Television version prior to ready.  It's a fast read!

4 comments Tags: books

Chipper and the Cinnamon Gold Fish

Chipper
Chipper
Need I say more?  Chipper is enjoying the cinnamon Goldfish cracker I gave him whilst I was doing my homework in Monterey.  This little fella went for it and chowed down!!
Post a comment Tags: pets

Mike's Monstrous Burger

After catering at a golf tournament all day today, Mike and I came home really hungry.  Sadly, he was craving hamburgers.


He made some burgers and from the size of it, I couldn't help but post these pictures.

The photograph didn't turn out as well since he was moving too much and I was moving too much!!

Post a comment Tags: good eats

Alice's Birthday Dinner

Every year during the month of September, we throw Alice a birthday party or a birthday dinner at my house.  Every year, I bake a cake and every year it's different.  This year, I've deiced to make her a raspberry torte.


As usual, time management is my biggest downfall.  Our guests wouldn't be arriving until 6:00 PM and some will arrive earlier to jump into our swimming pool.  I figured I'll start the baking process at 3:00 PM.  The cake will bake for 45 minutes and then it will go into the refrigerator to cool.  The glaze would be added later.  Ha!  I understimated my time again.

The cake finished in record time.. or so I think.  Take a look at the picture.. doesn't it looked finished?

Nope!  It was still a bit gooey in the middle, so back into the oven it goes.  As I'm waiting for it to completely cook, I decided to take my bucket of soapy, dirty mop water out to the backyard..but on the way there, the bucket broke and down comes the lavender Pinsol mop water all over the kitchen floor.  More aggravation and more cleaning up.  When I finally gotten rid of the mess, the cake was ready to be taken out of the oven.  Yay!  It's completely cooked and not over done, but my time was running short!
I know that doesn't look yummy just yet, but it's all about the glaze.  The chocolate glaze that goes on top hardens when its cooled.
Finally, the finished product... it was delicious.  The words to describe it are "rich" and "decadent."
Well, besides the cake, we served some Chinese Chicken Salad, regular green salad, monstrous zucchini from the garden, and Mike's yummy barbeque.... and since I'm a vegetarian, the barbeque was out of the question.  My tummy relished on the Green Salad and barbequed Zucchini!

Post a comment Tags: baking, good eats

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Hazel

About Me

Hazel
United States
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Shopaholic. Designer. Knitter. Crocheter. Struggling Novelist. Yarn Collector. Photographer. Addicted to the Wii

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