Mission: Shortbread

Lurpak butter, check.

Nielsen-Massey vanilla bean paste, check.



Flour, check.

Confectioner's sugar, check.

Granulated sugar, check.

Preparations for Thomas Keller's shortbread are almost complete.

Most excellent.

Problematic Parsley

I'm finally going to grow my own herbs. I'm tired of paying a lot of money for them at the market, not know what sorts of pesticides have landed on them if I don't seek out organic herbs, and then not being able to finish the overpriced bundles I buy before they dry out.



As you can see, I'm really good at taking care of my Italian flat leaf parsley plant.

I'm also really good at taking pictures of my herbs at night with a steady hand.

PS: The last two statements were sarcastic.

Bakery Fail

The concept seems sound. But, the execution was shoddy.



How disappointing. More than half of it went in the trash can. ): It looks so damn tasty, too.

Sweet Release Titles

Just kidding.



The 3DS finally came out in America. I semi-reluctantly picked up super Street Fighter IV 3D Edition just so I would have a game to play. If you know me, you know I'm not a fighting game person. This should be an indication of how bad the game selection is for the 3DS right now. I suppose this would stop normal people from purchasing the system but I have a thing about Nintendo handhelds. I have almost every single one.

Original
Pocket
Color
(no SP)
Advanced
(no original DS)
DS Lite
DSi
3DS

I guess I don't have the micro either. I still have all of my Gameboys, though. They all still work, too. No you can't have them. I'm mesmerized with how pretty my 3DS is, though. I've already spent more time using it (about 15 minutes) than I have with my Wii in this year thus far. I love blue. ^_^

Another 85 Degree Plug

Say hello to the tiramisu and the coffee creme brulee cake from 85 Degree Bakery in Irvine. I've said it in the past but I'll say it again. I don't know how they manage to make these cakes so light but still so full of flavor. If I eat a westernized cake, my stomach is always painfully bogged down afterwards. I could probably still go skydiving and feel okay after eating one of these bad boys. Maybe.

This Is Not a Taco

But this is what you'll get when you order the fish taco at Mick's Karma Cafe in Irvine. I suppose you'll get it with pico de gallo. But I detest pico de gallo, so mine didn't come with any much to the consternation of the owner ("WHY YOU NO LIKE PICO DE GALLO? SPICY?") He is from Europe. So he said. I didn't even know how to begin eating it, so I just flipped the tortilla open and fork and knifed the mahi mahi with bits of sauce soaked cabbage. I ended up eating about a third of the tortilla and still felt overloaded with carbs. I barely ate the fries, they were not good /:

If that's their taco, I'd hate to see what their burritos would look like.. o__O

My Big To Do List

I love books.
I love food.
I love photography.
I love design.
I love typography.

As such, I own a lot of cookbooks.



In the past two weeks, I've acquired all of these. If you've been paying attention, you'd know my bookshelf is already full. I now have lots of books stacked on my dresser. My room is starting to remind me of a library from a wizard's tower in a fantasy movie. Stacks of books teetering on all available surfaces. Made a nerd reference, oops.

I've been kicking the idea of a food blog around for years now. I was always intrigued by the idea of cooking through books (a la Julie & Julia) but feel I'd be doing myself a disservice by sticking to only one title. Since I'm not trained enough in cooking myself to come out with good recipes of my own yet, my blog would likely feature recipes adapted from the books that I own. I've been stumped on a good food blog title for a long time now. Nothing seems fetching enough. And I don't want to have a poopy generic design either. Thinking about it all makes me frown. ]: