Saturday, June 30, 2012

Farewell Gateau au Chocolate

Good afternoon, everyone :D


One of my best friends in LA and her family are moving to another state, so we held a farewell party for them.


I remember that the kids liked my chocolate cake over regular sponge cake, so here it is! A Gateau au Chocolate, a chocolate cake made with real chocolate.


Kept the decoration simple with four cute patterns with confectioner's sugar.


 Placed it on one of my new vintage plate, and ready to invite the guests.


I'll write about the farewell party with lots of tasty dishes in my nest post.




Enjoy your weekend and thanks for visiting this blog :)

Wednesday, June 27, 2012

A gift from a winery

Good evening everyone :D


I've been finding pretty flowers in interesting colors this month, ant that's making me very happy.


These Gerberts were one of my favorites. They brightened the dining area when I used them for the center piece.


Tonight, I would like to introduce you a tasty souvenier my friend couple gave me from their trip to Santa Barbara.
"Chocolate Hazelnut Melrot Truffle Fudge" from Gainey Vineyard.


I was told that my friend's husband tasted this and said "Wow, this is a perfect gift for Ako!" Yes, it really was because I cannot stop eating it when I spread it on crackers with cheese. It is light and creamy, easy to spread, and tastes exactly how its name explains :)


I had toasted English Muffin with this fudge spread, and also a confiture my friend sent from Japan.


This confiture is awesome, too. Fig with mint and vanilla. Doesn't it sound very attempting? It goes so well with cheese that you will want to start drinking some wine. It's a shame that I have such a low tolerance to alcohol, but maybe it was a good thing. Oh, well.


Anyway, both of them are tasty, and made me very happy. Not only because they taste good, but the fact that my friends thought of me when choosing them makes me feel very special and happy. Thank you, thank you, and thank you!!!


Time to go to sleep. See you tomorrow :D

Tuesday, June 26, 2012

June Table Setting with Antique Cups

Good evening everyone :D


I found some interesting looking tulips, so brought them home. Pink and pretty.


I usually try to change the table center monthly, so I used these tulips this month with my favorite antique cups.

 The items on the right are the things I used for this month's table.


After a while, I had to change the flowers, so chose bright reddish orange Carnashions. They were quite pretty as well :)


Another favorite part of this setting is the Federal cup I purchased at an Antique market a little while ago. I have a special memory for this pattern.




When I was a little child, used to sleep with a large towel with this same pattern on it, and could not let it go until it ripped at the end and had to get a new one. This pattern was my mother's favorite, too.



Usually I like using the antique dishes and cups in everyday life, but since this one means a lot to me, and is in a great condition, it will be displayed in my dish cabinet for a while.


June is about to finish already, so now trying to come up with a new setting for July.


Good night everyone! 

Monday, June 25, 2012

Apricot Tart in Season

Hello everyone :D


Found some pretty apricots at a farmer's market, so got some, and decided to bake something with it for a girl friends gathering.


 Apricot tart filled with almond cream. I usually like the almond tart with rum, but thought Grand Marnier which is an orange liqueur goes well with apricot, so tried it.




It turned out really well, and my girlfriends enjoyed it a lot with big smiles :D




Another happy moment.


That's it for now.
See you soon again!!!


Have a good week everyone :)

Stamped Cookies

Hello again!


Stamped cookies.
My pretty niece in Japan who is two years old asked me to send her cookies when we were skyping, so I baked two kinds of cookies, vanilla and cocoa.


Vanilla in strawberry shape, and cocoa in pineapple. On the surface of the cocoa one, I sprinkles some cinnamon sugar because I thought the dough was a bit bitter for a two years old.


Baked!


Wrapped them really well using a sealer my friend let me borrow, and it worked really well. My niece received a fresh, crispy cookies in several days, and enjoyed them really well :D


When people smile after eating my sweets or dishes, that makes me smile, too! :) :) :)

Vegan Muffin

Hello everyone. I know, I know. I haven't updated this blog for over a week again! There are quite a few photos I want to share with you, so will try to keep it simple, and just mainly upload the photos.


One of my recent baking was vegan muffin filled with sweet golden raisin. It turned out well, and my friends and their kids liked it :D
  
Wrapped them with pretty color clips. This is a very simple yet still cute way to wrap a muffin, so give it a try!






Thursday, June 14, 2012

Birthday Dinner at Il Giorgio Baldi

Hello everyone :D It was another pretty day with sunny light and cool breeze.


Today, I would like to introduce you a tasty Italian restaurant in Malibu area, "Il Ristorante di Giorgio Baldi". 


My girlfriends and I went there to celebrate one of the girls' birthday.


This was our first time at the restaurant, and the atmosphere was cozy and nice.


Everything we ordered tasted good, but my favorite was the beef carpaccio. It was the most tender and tasty carpaccio I ever had. So tender that it almost melts in your mouth!


We shared the plate, but I will order and eat it all by myself when I visit there next time.


Here are the some photos of the dishes we ordered. Sauces were flavored well, not too salty (very important factor for me), and the Sole was firm and fresh.
Happy happy tasty dinner went through the night.

Happy Birthday Girlfriend! It was really nice to celebrate your birthday together :D

Monday, June 11, 2012

Red bean roll bread and steamed bun

 Hello everyone, the beginning of a new week. How was your weekend? I celebrated a couple of friends' birthday, and both of them were fun. Always happy to spend nice time with friends :D


The other day, I cooked some Azuki beans with Agave. After cooking it for a while, the Azuki turns into a paste, and this is called "Anko" in Japanese. To be honest with you, I was never a big fan of this Azuki paste since I was a child, but after tasting a very mildly sweetened one a few years ago, I started  to enjoy its flavor more.


First, I made some steamed bun with the "Anko" I made. It tuned out very moist and tasty, and my friend who tasted it really liked it.


Inside the bun looks like this.


Then I still had some "Anko" left, so decided to bake a roll filled with it. Here it is.
It turned out really well, even though this was my first time baking it. Inside of this one looks like below.


My husband liked it, and took it for his snack to work for a few days :)


In the past, I've only been baking non-Japanese style sweets and breads, but I think I will start experimenting some Japanese ones once in a while to broaden my recipes.


I will update them if I do.


Time to check my oven. See you soon everyone, and have a nice week!













Tuesday, June 5, 2012

First back yard BBQ of the year

Hello hello!
It's a sunny beautiful morning here in Southern California. A day like this makes me happy :D


After preparing for the BBQ, our guests arrived with beautiful dishes besides the veggies and the hod dogs I asked them to bring over.
Aren't they beautiful? Seared Tuna salad, Shrimp ball, etc.
The dishes brightened the color on the patio table. Thank you!!!


Veggies were cut beautifully, even the corns arrived already wrapped in foil. This saves so much time when entertaining. I was very grateful:)
Since I was too busy hosting, couldn't take many photos of the dishes or the grilling, but let me at least explain what we had. Grilled beef, Chicken legs, Salmon, different veggies, artichoke, etc. 


Our cute little guest with her favorite hat seemed to enjoy herself, too, so I was very happy. Holding here in my arms made me so happy! Little ones always make people happy happy.


As we were eating and drinking, it became dark and a little chilly outside, so we decided to have the dessert inside the house. Everyone was very full, but enjoyed my strawberry mousse tart and finished it. 


Our first BBQ of the year ended very yummy and happy, thanks to our friends. Thank you!!!


However, late at night, my husband started feeling sick with bad headache and dullness, and it was probably from inhaling the charcoal grilling smoke and not drinking enough water while drinking alcohol. It is always important to not forget taking water during summer. After sleeping for the night, my husband recovered and happily went to play golf the next day, so I was relieved. Please don't forget to drink water or sports drink everyone, and let's enjoy the summer season!!!


Have a nice day :D



Saturday, June 2, 2012

Preparing our first backyard BBQ of the year

Hello everyone. It's a nice Saturday afternoon. I just took care of our roses in our front yard. Now they look prettier and clean, and making me happy looking at them :D Good way to spend a weekend, right?


Last Memorial weekend, we ended up not going for a trip, but got to invite a couple of friend families and had our first back yard BBQ of the year. Our guests asked me what we wanted them to bring over, so I asked one of them to bring some veggies, and the other some hotdog buns and hotdogs. When I first started entertaining people at home, I felt like I should be doing everything as a host, but now asking people to bring something easy so they will feel comfortable, and all of us can have more fun together.


For this BBQ, my husband and I got some meat, Salmon, made corn soup, and a dessert. 


An hour before the BBQ started, pulled out the meat from the refrigerator so they will come to a room temperature. Meat tastes better that way.


Salmon preparation is very easy, too. Julienne some onions (cut in thin strips), and slice brown mushrooms, place them on the bottom of the square pan, then lay the salted and peppered salmon over them. Put some fresh herbs on top of the salmon, cover with some foil, and after the guests arrive, start grilling them. Simple, but a very tasty dish. This time I used Sage, Thyme, Lemon Thyme, and Parsley picked from our garden.


For the dessert, made a strawberry mousse tart with fresh strawberries from the weekend farmer's market. Before the guests arrived, finished decorating the tart with Chantilly cream and placed it in the fridge, covered. Added some fresh color with putting a sprig of mint on the side of the strawberries.


The corn soup was already made the day before, so we were ready to welcome our guests with smile. No stress :) Well, this became long enough for today, so will write about the time with our guests in my next post.  


Have a great weekend, and thank you for visiting this blog everyone :D