Patio Light Broke
Jeff said he was outside smoking a cigarette in our patio and the light made a sudden cracking noise, split and fell to the ground.
Azuki Ice Cream
We made Azuki Ice Cream with the leftover red beans we had from making the mochi last week. Mmm mm, it turned out really yummy!
AZUKI (SWEET RED BEAN) ICE CREAM
* 1/2 cup sugar
* 3 egg yolks
* 1 cup milk
* 1 1/2 cups sweetened red bean paste
* 1 1/2 cups heavy whipping cream
1. In a large bowl, beat sugar and egg yolks till pale and yellow. Set aside.
2. Bring the milk to a boil in a heavy medium saucepan and then turn off heat.
3. Slowly whisk hot milk into the yolk/sugar mixture. Pour the entire mixture back into the saucepan.
4. Turn on to a very low heat and stir constantly, till it thickens. Do not let it boil!
5. Take the mix off the heat and whisk in the red bean paste. Strain the entire mixture into a large bowl.
6. Let it cool for about 2 minutes and then stir in the cream. Cover and refrigerate overnight.
7. Process according to your ice cream maker’s instructions.
Fitness Unlimited
Sandy and I went to Fitness Unlimited (FU) today to help me learn my “stepz” since I am subbing my first Step Aerobics class this Wednesday at Golds Gym. We noticed they had a bulletin board up with a big ole’ flyer announcing her return to the club. Sandy has somewhat of a cult following, so it said flyer and font-size is quite justified in my opinion. Next to that is a flyer that says there will be changes and additions to the group exercise schedule – which does include me! I’m going to be teaching at 1-hour Turbo Kick class Wednedsays at 5:30pm, and also be rotating teaching a Saturday 1 1/2 class of TKB + Sculpting at 9:15am. I’m excited!
Muffin Tin Bubbles
Notice when you wash your cupcake pan that it makes cool bubbles?
Yankees Tickets
Jeff bought his Yankee tickets already for when we go to New York in September. It came in the mail the other day. The tickets are his birthday present – though i think he paid for it with his own credit card? Look at the ticket price – Uh yikes! But he is beyond excited to see them play against arch rival the Red Sox! And well it IS is his 30TH BIRTHDAY! Gotta splurge. Go Yankees!
Briana’s Margarita Bday Bash
Briana is turning the ripe old age of 21 on May 28th! We had to celebrate a day early because she will be going to Vegas tomorrow. Lucky girl. I baked some honorary Margarita Cupcakes (see recipe below), and we also had a delicious enchilada lunch (courtesy of Angie) with guacamole and tortilla chips (courtesy of Kathy), pasta salad (courtesy of Rita) and of course some alcoholic margaritas (courtesy of Theresa)! Yay for alcoholic parties during work hours!
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MARGARITA CUPCAKES
1/4 cup lime juice
1 1/2 tsp lime zest (1 lime)
1 cup soy milk, plain or vanilla (I used regular 1% milk)
1/4 cup vegetable oil
2 tsp tequila (omit it for non-alcoholic cupcakes)
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1 cup sugar
1 1/3 cup all purpose flour
1/4 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
Preheat oven to 350F. Fill a 12-cup muffin tin with liners. In a large bowl, mix together lime juice, lime zest, soy milk, oil, tequila, vanilla and sugar. In a small bowl, mix together flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt. Add to lime mixture and stir until just combined. Divide evenly into muffin tins. Bake for 20-24 minutes, until a tester comes out clean and the cakes spring back when lightly pressed. Turn out onto a wire rack to cool completely before frosting.
Tequila Lime Frosting
1/4 cup butter or non-hydrogenated shortening, softened (I used butter)
1 tbsp soy milk (I used regular 1% milk)
3 tbsp lime juice
1 tbsp tequila (omit it for non-alcoholic cupcakes) 2+ cups confectioners’ sugar
coarse sugar and salt for “rims”
Cream together non-hydrogenated shortening, soy milk, lime juice, tequila, and 2 cups of confectioners’ sugar. Add in more sugar as needed to make frosting stiff, but spreadable. Spread on cupcakes and roll the edges in a small amount of coarse sugar and salt (poured into a small bowl, so it’s easy to direct it).
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The cupcakes smelled like margaritas when i was mixing up the batter, but i thought they turned out a little too dense – perhaps making it non-vegan (adding eggs!) and mixing the batter a bit more rather than till “just combined” might help it be more fluffy. But overall it was pretty tasty and very entertaining to create and indulge in!
Fridge a Mess
Wow, our fridge is quite a mess with various foodage. But i’m too lazy to organize, i’d rather just shove.
Goes somewhat like this:
Open door. Shove in. Slide…..slide…..CRASH!!!
Reshove. [!#@-beep-$#%!] – hold —-
*snap 365 photo*
Slam door. Lights out.
Strawberry Mochi
It’s Memorial Day! No work today. I wanted to test out my “fruit” themed recipe for my food club, today – Strawberry Mochi! I’ve never made it before, but have tasted it once before from a friend back in high school in Hawaii. It’s not the easiest thing to make. Most of the people who tasted the one i made today didn’t like the textures very much, so I decided not to be making this for my food club. Glad I did a test run! Though it wasn’t well liked i thought it came out pretty and it was fun getting my hands all powdery and playing with the mochi dough. I couldn’t find the tsubushian from the asian store so had to buy ogura-an which is the whole bean in sauce rather than the paste… so that presented its own challenge. I had to blend it up and then add all kinds of mochi flour to it to make it the right consistency. If i can find tsubushian i might try to make it again, though it is kind of a waste since only I would be eating it and it’s way too much sugar for my diet! In any case, here is the recipe for basic microwave mochi, which you can make any sort of variation on:
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MICROWAVE MOCHI
- 1-1/2 cups mochiko (rice flour)
- 1-1/2 cups water
- 1/2 cup sugar
- Pinch salt
- Katakuriko (potato starch) or kinako (roasted soybean flour), for dusting
- 1 cup tsubushi an (mashed bean paste) or koshi an (smooth bean paste)
Mix mochiko, water, sugar and salt in a bowl. Lightly coat a microwavable tube cake pan with cooking spray. Pour mixture into pan and cover with plastic wrap or a microwave cover. Microwave 3 minutes on low, then 3 minutes on medium and 3 minutes on high, for a total of 9 minutes.
Cool in microwave 5 to 10 minutes, then turn onto a Teflon-coated baking pan sprinkled with katakuriko or kinako. Cut into 16 pieces.
Dust hands with katakuriko or kinako and flatten each piece. Place 1 tablespoon an in center of each piece. Bring edges together and pinch to seal. Shape as desired.
Note: Cook time based on microwave wattage of 1,000. Depending on your microwave wattage, cooking time may need to be adjusted.
Variations
- > Add fresh strawberries, peanut butter or sweet chestnut covered with bean paste.
- > For chocolate flavor, stir 1/4 to 1/3 cup melted chocolate chips into mochi batter before cooking.
- > Add a few drops of food coloring into batter for color variation.
- > A few drops of flavoring (strawberry, grape, orange, blueberry, etc.) may also be added.
Practicing Step
Yesterday my step instructor Sandy (who happens to be my Los Olivos neighbor) invited me over to her house so she could begin to teach my how to teach step aerobics. We wrote down an intermediate level routine and went over how to break everything down. I got some music from her and borrowed a step so I could begin practicing my cueing and memorizing the routine. Today i practiced for a few hours and I think I am getting the hang of it, though i believe it is much harder to pick up compared to Turbo Kick! For one, you have to make up all your routines from scratch, whereas Turbo is pre-choreographed. You also need your own music. And its more confusing in general because you have to make sure you switch up your leading foot when putting routines together. Sandy is an advanced teacher so the routines i am learning are from her arsenal – definitely not for beginners. I’d probably do better as a teacher if i started off with a basic level, but man i don’t know if i could hang because those routines would be so boring!! Initially i am learning to teach so i can fill in for Sandy as a substitute teacher when she can’t teach her class. But eventually i may teach my own step class…sometime in the far future! I believe I will be subbing for Sandy’s class June 3rd, so that is coming up really soon and i don’t feel prepared yet at all.
Melon Balling
I got 2-for-1 cantaloupe at Safeway last night and was about to cut them up for a snack today when Jeff reminded me “Don’t forget to use the melon baller!” Yah! I totally forgot about it. So i pulled out my never-been-used melon baller and balled away! The leftover skin looks creepy. I kept trying to get a perfectly round ball but couldn’t quite figuer how to do so.