Happy Holidays!

I'm pretty sure not everyone got the 80s Awkward Family Portrait theme we were going for this year. We didn't want a traditional family portrait for our holiday cards this year even though we do need a decent portrait of us.

Juku and Kami nailed it though. Amado was owning the "very clueless, staring off into nothing while awkwardly excited" look. Me on the other hand, let's just say someone (Amado) was impatient and didn't want to coach me or give me directions. I wish at least had a funky sweater on to tie up the whole theme together but I was not about to pay for one unlike someone I know who drove around to every used clothing store looking for the perfect ugly sweater over the weekend, ahem Amado.. He said, he "needed" one for his company party.

Like have a

totally gnarly Christmas

and

a bitchin' New Year!

Solvang

Sometime last week, Amado woke up early and really hungry (no surprise there). We could have just walked down the street and grabbed some bagels and coffee but we thought why not go for a drive.

That hunger lead us all the way to Solvang. Yep, Solvang! I've never been there before and was curious enough to see what I've been missing out on, so why not drive for 2 hours for some Danish adventure.

I was stalking this house. Nothing special about it but I love that it was all white and just highlights everything thing with color around it.

If Eggs Benedict is on the menu, I'm getting it. I might make it a home for breakfast one of these days specially after seeing Ree Drummond (Pioneer Woman) make it.

They were not happy with our next destination. We thought it would be a fun one since we've never seen ones before but the girls just growled, barked and jumped the whole time.  

Instead, Amado and I took turns holding the girls while the other one walked around the ostrich farm. That's a lot of Birkins and Kellys, just kidding. But those giant birds are really aggressive.

Dobash Birthday Cake

For my family, King's Hawaiian cakes are the go-to cakes for any occasions. It's always been a toss up between Dobash and Paradise cake. A Dobash cake has been on the top of my To-Do list and I finally had the opportunity to make it for Amado's birthday. If you haven't tried one yet, it's pretty much like taking a huge bite off a fluffy cloud. Oh and it's a chocolate cloud with each layer frosted and the top drizzled with chocolate milk ganache. Heaven, right?!

Unfortunately I wasn't able to take photos of each step while making the cake because I was preparing 2 other dishes at for that night so this one of Amado blowing out his birthday cake will do for now.

Homemade Cannoli

Last year our New York trip was cut short because of the hurricane. While we got to squeeze in as much as we had planned, one thing that was left unfulfilled for Amado was devouring a Veniero's cannoli. Since then, he's been on a mission to find a good (local) Italian bakery but he's given up after a couple of months so I decided to tackle making some myself.

The shell is pretty easy to make. It calls for the very basic ingredients much like a pasta dough. I did cheat a little by using my pasta maker instead of rolling out the dough by hand. The filling on the other hand took me 3 different tries to get it right. There are tons of the ricotta cheese filling recipes online but I couldn't get over the gritty texture. I also tried folding in some whipped cream in the second batch to lighten the filling but it still wasn't quite right. The ricotta and marscapone combination finally did the trick. Perfect consistency and you can control the sweetness with powdered sugar.

Cannoli Recipe:

4 cups sifted flour

3 tbsp butter

2 egg yolks (save the egg whites)

2 tbsp sugar

1/4 tsp salt

1/2 cup white wine

vegetable oil (for frying)

Combine the sifted flour, sugar, and salt a bowl. Cut in the butter into the dry ingredients. Add the egg yolks. Stir in the wine a tbsp at a time, until a doughlike consistency forms.

Roll the dough into a ball. Cover it with plastic wrap and let it rest in the fridge for at least 1/2 hour.

Cut the dough into 4 smaller portions for easy handling. Roll dough balls with a rolling pin on a floured  surface until it's thin. Cut in 4" circles. Wrap the circles around the cannoli forms and seal the ends with an egg white wash. Fry in vegetable oil until brown for about 1-2 minutes. Drain and gently remove the forms. Let it cool completely before filling.

Filling:

2 16oz ricotta cheese

2 8oz marscapone cheese

1 1/2 cups powdered sugar

2 tbsp vanilla extract

1/2 cup semi-sweet chocolate 

He finally got his homemade cannoli!

Black and White Film

Here's the second set of film I processed with TheDarkRoom.com last week. I'm really happy with their service so far. The whole process took about 1 week and the price isn't bad compared to the other ones I've found online. These are a mix of Ilford XP2 Super 400 and Kodak Pro BW400CN. I prefer the Kodak because of the shadow details and its sharp imagery.

These were taken at El Segundo's Movie at the Park. We were mainly there for the food (duh!) but it's pointless to take photos of them with black and white film.

I love that you can see so much detail in Juku's face. Typically hard to see due to her dark black coat and shading from her bangs.

And Kami's too. She's so dramatic with her emotional expression. 

The next 10 or so were shot with the Ilford and you can see the difference.

I chatted with this lady for a bit after she caught the fish. I guess no one really hassles you about fishing on the shoreline at 7am.

Took this one of Amado during our daily walk. He said it's profile worthy since he looks slim.

The Rottweiler that we always say "hi" to on our way to the strand.

Some photos from the Arboretum.

and The Grove...

On the road for a Malaya Project shoot in Rancho Cucamonga.

Stopped by my cousin's, Marissa, for her birthday bbq. Thanks for not wasting my film. You actually took a decent one of me and Amado and I still have backyard envy!

Color Film

So here we have a photo dump post. I divided them into two sets so it doesn't slow down browsers and annoy people. Obviously with film, you have to finish the entire roll before being able to process it so there's a combination of different events in this set.

These ones were taken in San Pedro when my cousin Mick decided to have a little get together. Hanging out at White Rocks reminded me of my Uncle Mike. We always went for long drives. Most of the time, we didn't really have a set destination and we didn't care. I'm bad with directions so I learned to navigate through Anaheim, Buena Park, San Pedro and Wilmington by using food places for landmarks. I definitely learned that from him which probably is where my passion for food came from. The other part, from Amado (for obvious reasons).

By the way, bomb soft serve ice cream truck! I'm willing to track this guy down on a weekend if I have to. That's how much of an ice cream junkie I am. I've told Amado that when we finally buy a house, I only have two requests. A soft serve ice cream machine in our kitchen and a Korean BBQ style table/grill in our backyard.

Here's one from Marley Mae's shoot and with Sully feeding the ducks at the park.

My cousin Suzanne and her family pay a visit in our home area of Manhattan Beach all the way from Canada. It's been almost 15 years since we last saw each other. It was great seeing them. The kids were just super excited to be able to enjoy SoCal's beach scene despite the overcast which definitely did not put a damper on their Sunday Funday. I recall one of the girls exclaiming aloud "This is the BEST DAY ever!" Definitely put a smile on all our faces. And major props to Amado for getting them a pretty-in-pink, patriotic beach towel. Pretty expensive but well worth the happiness and smiles attained from that day. (NOTE: Manhattan Beach does not have a souvenir shop.) 

Kevin's Birthday. Pat, sorry, I thought I got one of you standing next to him.

Juku sunbathing. This is her usual spot from 10am-12pm if I'm at home. Our little Pink Belly. So ripe.

From a shoot Greg and I worked on in DTLA. Miracles happened during this shoot. Greg and I managed to put together a pretty awesome video despite the conditions we had to work with.