Donut Day

I had a serious hankering for donuts yesterday and decided to forego lunch for some melt-in-your- mouth goodness. One donut turned into two, and before I knew it I was taking a whole box home. Unfortunately all the sugar got to my head because I ended up accidentally locking my keys in my car. After several S.O.S. calls and facebook statuses, I was finally rescued haha. Even after all that hoopla, I think it was all worth it in the end.

I'm off to L.A. for the weekend to celebrate my little sister's birthday. Let the festivities begin!

have a lovely weekend everyone =)

Sweet Things and Fried Chicken?

{professional taste testers}

{Oakland's famous Chicken and Waffles}

Thanks to my dear Alli, I had the pleasure of tagging along with her to the Sweet Shoppe festival in Oakland. We sampled tons of yummy sugar laden goodies and topped the day off with lunch at Oakland's famous Chicken and Waffles. It was such a sweet way to end the week! A joint food video blog is in the works, so look out for it soon =)

Now back to the daily grind... (insert a major sigh here)

Kitchen Musings

{my challah french toast topped with melted brie, fresh strawberries, and bananas}

{shrimp scampi goodness}

Last Sunday was spent creating lots of good food with great friends and family. In a perfect world, I would be able to do this everyday =) Hope you all have an amazing weekend!

Itching for Pinkberry

My diet these days consists of copious amounts of the coconut creamy goodness that is Pinkberry frozen yogurt. I haven't been in the mood to eat much lately, but i'll drive through a torrential thunderstorm in rush hour traffic just to get my fix ;) I have a serious problem I think.

Pizza my love- Chanterelle and truffle cheese pizza

{these babies were almost mistaken for trash LOL}

{homemade pizza crust}

{truffle cheese nirvana! Check out those truffle bits}

{finished product!}

Now that grad school is behind me for the remainder of the year, I can finally put away the instant ramen and microwave dinners and actually put together a decent homemade meal. My long hiatus from the kitchen caused me to get a little carried away at Whole Foods, but in the end it was sooooo worth it. After I fell hard for truffles (first on our trip to Seattle, and later on our visit to the French Laundry), I decided to re-create Tom Douglas's Truffle Cheese pizza from his infamous Seattle pizzeria "Serious Pie". From what I remember, every bite was nothing short of perfection. The crust had just the right crisp to it, while the truffle cheese and chanterelles came together in harmony to form a melt in your mouth nirvana. It's THAT good I tell you. Anyways, so yeah If I was going to make a pizza, I had to be sure it had 1. truffle cheese and 2. Chanterelle mushrooms, which both unfortunately come at a steep cost, weighing in at $32.99 per lb. I almost had a heart attack when D asked me if these "rotten looking mushrooms" could be thrown out along with the other garbage for tomorrow's trash day. To my horror, when I looked up he was holding the bag of Chanterelles. It's funny now, but I'm sure it wouldn't be had he thrown it away. I'm happy to report that my attempt to recreate the best pizza ever was pretty successful. We've eaten it for two nights straight, and now I think I'm on some kind of truffle high!

The recipe is simple:

I used this fool-proof (and I say this because I was able to make it) thin crust recipe courtesy of Kitchn.

• 1/2 cup good quality mozzarella cheese (shredded)
• 1/4 cup truffle cheese (the non-goat cheese kind)
• 1/2 lb chanterelles

1. Preheat your oven to 500 degrees

2. Lightly grease your pizza pan with vegetable oil then set your crust on top

3. Sauté your Chanterelles with olive oil in a pan on medium high heat for approximately 4 minutes.

4. Top your pizza with the Chanterelles, add a pinch of salt

5. Sprinkle 1/4 c of mozzarella, followed by 1/4 c of truffle cheese shavings on top

6. If you're feeling crazy, add a dash of truffle oil

Bake for 10 minutes until golden, and voila! Enjoy =)

D and I like it with plenty of red hot pepper flakes!

ps. Don't forget to join in on my Holiday Giveaway!! The more the merrier ;)

xoxo

Recovering from my food induced coma

After eating ourselves silly this weekend, I think I will need all of Monday to recuperate from my lingering food coma. Don't get me wrong though, cuz it was Legen... wait for it... DARY! Tell you more about it tomorrow ;) Hope everyone had a great weekend.

xoxo,

Missy

Pinkberry for dinner

I had a nice relaxing and productive day off from work. Did lots of chores, paid bills, researched stuff for our trip, went to happy hour with kj and vanessa, and to top it off... ate pinkberry for dinner. I'm a happy camper =)

{Check out their link, they have the cutest little rap jingle--it's super catchy and hard not to like}

Island Vacay Part Deux

Day 2 & 3 of our Hawaiian Getaway...

Day two started off sunny, but thanks to a tropical depression, we spent the next day and a half resembling wet mops.

{beautiful Lydgate Park, before the rain came pouring down}

{the group trekking through the wind amidst the swaying palms}

{yay for the underwater camera!}

{peace out homies}

{what was supposed to be the Waimea Canyon look out point. The blurriness is not photoshopped. It was courtesy of the mist, rain, and humidity that day}

{we salvaged the day with some mouth-watering shrimp at Kauai's Shrimp Station. I will post a separate list of our favorite food spots later}

Hope you lovelies are having a wonderful week =)

Cooking 101

{the final product}

{alaina working hard in the kitchen}

Sometime ago, my friend Alaina asked me if I could give her some cooking lessons during the summer.  I was excited that she had asked me, and eagerly agreed to teach her along with the disclaimer that I'm no professional by any means, just a girl who loves good food and experimenting in the kitchen.  

Last night we kicked off Cooking 101 with Alaina's favorite cuisine: Italian.   On the menu was penne a la vodka and chicken marsala, both versatile crowd pleasing dishes that can be served at a dinner party or even for a romantic dinner (kisses guaranteed after).  I'm happy to say that it was a success, and we both had a great time.  Next up: BAKING!!! Stay tuned, we might even tape it if all works out :) 

recipes can be found here and here, but were adapted to personal taste. enjoy :)

Berry Cute

It's past 3am and  I'm still up because I forced myself to finish my final paper for my summer school psychopharmacology class.  Now I'm wide awake with nothing better to do than share this picture of my Audrey Hepburn painting eating a juicy summer strawberry. Summer is flying by way too fast, so I guess the saying is true... time sure flies when you're havin' fun!

I'm off to bed! See ya'll in the mornin' (said with my best country accent),

M

spice heaven

I'm pretty sure I was Indian in my last life. I totally dig how Indian food uses a million savory spices that ignite an explosion of flavor in every bite.  A couple of weeks ago, I tried my hand at one of my all time favorite dishes, Tandoori Chicken, and to my surprise it was just as good as the takeout from the Indian restaurant next door.  The kicker is that the recipe is from Emeril of all people.  You can get the recipe here.  The only adjustments I made were to up the salt 1/4 of a tsp.,add an extra tablespoon of lemon juice, and bake at 400 for 35 minutes instead of grilling.  Follow the simple steps, and you're on your way to spice heaven :) enjoy!

Made my day

{the latte heart captured by my phone}

Had a nice relaxing weekend. Why am I writing about the weekend on a Wednesday you ask? I misplaced my brain and decided to indulge in a five-day, lazy fest to treat myself for surviving the prior crazy week. Now that I'm back to reality, I have to face everything I've been neglecting for the past few days arggg...

Anyways, the school's library cafe employs some of the grumpiest baristas, but today an unsuspecting grumpy unknowingly ended up making me a latte with a heart in it! Definitely made my day :) I guess grumpy people have hearts too

Hope everyone is having a great week.

Cutie Patooties

 { I am digging these little cuties. Can't get enough of them !}