Beef Curry and Roasted Garlic Toast

Not really sure why I've never tried making curry before.

Our roommate showed me how to make curry and its easier than I thought.

Now we've stocked up on curry for those "emergency" meals.

Beef Curry with Roasted Garlic Toast

(Amado named this one..)

Got the idea to roast the garlic from Cerveza Please.

Check out Omar's site specially if you enjoy beer.

Baked Brie

Made Baked Brie and crackers with a bottle of KJ (Thanks Jimmy!)

to enjoy while watching Gossip Girl.

Ready-made puff pastry (2 sheets), shaved almond and apricot marmalade.

Brush over some melted butter and pop in the oven for 30 mins at 350-400.

Birthday Boy

A little snack in bed for the Birthday Boy.

And some playtime with Kami.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY :)

Mock Wedding Shoot (Revisited)

I promised myself to say "Yes" more this year, as long as its to something reasonable.

I say I'm shy although others can strongly argue against that but I wanted to get used to directing subjects more.

I tend to freeze up and lose my ideas ones faced with subjects.

I guess thats why most of my photos are candid, less pressure that way.

I'm not really sure if wedding/engagement is the route I'll be taking my photography to but

I want to be able to say that I've experience the process at least once.

The set is from a mock wedding shoot we did back in September.

Bruce staged the whole setting, more like provided everything including the models.

It was a great experience for me. Met great folks that I would love to work with again some day.

I felt less pressured since its only a mock and I didn't have to worry about actually ruining someone's special day.

I definitely made mistakes while shooting but very glad that I'm able to recognize what they were.

Its just a matter of remembering not to do it again if and when the opportunity to shoot a wedding comes along.

A few stills from that day.

and a slideshow of the rest..

(Oh fancy huh! I just wanted to throw in the slideshow since I barely learned the feature from Flickr)

Rainy Day

The girls are bummed its a rainy day.

We had to rush our morning walk because it was starting to drizzle.

Nothing else to do but lay around the house now.

Licorice Stix Addiction

Licorice Stix from Harry and David

(not available online)

These little suckers are amazing! 

First tried em while walking around the mall with my cousins (Thanks Holly!!!). 

Now every time I pass by the mall, I grab a bag and try not to inhale the whole thing in one sitting.

You can't just have one stick. Definitely addicting.

Mille Crepe

I first learned about Mille Crepe when I watched the anime Yumeiro Patissiere.

I thought I'd make one for Amado's birthday this week.

This cake is my practice cake, hopefully the one for his birthday turns out even better.

The cake itself is very tedious to make. The crepe batter needs a few hours to set.

Definitely dedicate an hour or two to make the batter and crepe and another hour or two

to put the cake together.

Mille Crepe isn't too sweet by itself so its good to pair with a sauce or a simple

fruit jelly and powdered sugar.

The recipe for Mille Crepe can be can be found here.

A few suggestions:

- make sure not to over cook the vanilla creme. It should have a thick consistency that will be later on be lightened when the whipped creme is folded in.

- the recipe/instruction did not mention how to incorporate the butter in to the vanilla creme,

the butter should be melted.

- the crepe batter made about 30 crepes using an almost filled 1/3 measuring cup and a 9-inch pan.

Lazy Sunday - Thank You Martha Stewart

We live for lazy Sundays. 

Amado rarely gets to sleep in so he looked forward to this day

when nothing was planned for us.

I on the other hand looked forward to my snack, frozen grapes.

I have Martha Stewart to thank for this and my gift wrapping technique, haha.

Cheap and easy, but you just have to be patient which I'm not.

I decided to pop them in the freezer the night before to avoid peeking every hour 

just to check if they're ready.

Usually a summer treat but everyone that knows me can attest that I will snack on anything cold

even if its winter i.e. my tub of generic chocolate ice cream, but thats a different story.

Kami snacking on her own treats, BTW GRAPES ARE BAD FOR DOGS!

We sunk into our couch and watched a few movies.

Netflix really helps with days like these. They have a good selection of documentaries and indie films

that can leave us stuck on the couch for a month straight if we wanted to.

We watched "Prodigal Sons" and "No Impact Man", two very entertaining films.

Well it was entertaining for some of us.

Had my cake and ate it too.. With Mango Pudding on the side.

Our roommate applied for a new part time job. When she mentioned it was at a Japanese Bakery,

the dessertaholic in me got excited and already hoped its at Amado's favorite place.

She came home with some goodies after her job interview.

For the last couple of years, we've always had Gateau Fraise for Amado's birthday.

Patisserie Chantilly's pastries really stands out from others. 

Usually very light and subtle with the sweetness which lets you enjoy the rest of the flavors.

Oh by the way, she got the job!

Gateau Fraise and Mango Pudding

Patisserie Chantilly

Lomita, CA

** some other desserts we've had from the bakery

Mont Blanc with Chestnut

Chocolate Tart and Cheesecake Bar

To Me, He Will Always Be That Annoying Little Kid..

This set was taken a while back but its one of my favorites.

My cousin Travis asked me to take photos of his truck just so he can post some on his Facebook.

A truck alone will not tell a story so I proposed to have him be in it.

Makes sense right? Yeah, if I've worked with actual people before.

Before that day, the only moving subjects I've directed were Juku and Kami (our dogs/kids/daugthers).

Though I don't have many under my belt, I can definitely say it was one of the easiest and most relaxed shoot I've experienced.

Things just flow so much better when the subject is fun and willing to take risks.

One thing I'm trying to change about myself is to be less reserved.

He was an example of that for me.

BTW, excuse the horrible watermark. I've changed it since then.

Addiction

Leche Flan always remind me of being a kid.

Every time we had a party, my mom would make a few pans the night before.

I remember I would always sneak downstairs to the kitchen and would get a bit.

Or two. Maybe three. Okay I'm lying, six.

Sadly, I still do the same thing to this day.

Roomies Day

Our roommate and her friend decided to make hand rolls for lunch.

A very interactive dish. Enjoyed the time chit-chatting while making our meal.

Salmon, Tuna, Yellow Tail and Squid

I made Leche Flan for dessert. Didn't come out as nice as I hope it would.

Disneyland

Disneyland Gay Day 2010

The only way to enjoy Disneyland is to go with great people.