Dinner at Chris and Brad's

My friend Chris had a small dinner party last weekend and served Shrimp and Scallop Posole. It was very warming to the soul, light, and delicious. I don't usually eat shrimp and scallops but I enjoyed it very much because it was not fishy at all.

I will definitely try this recipe at one of my dinners.

She also makes fabulous christmas cookies each year.

2 Birthdays in 1 Day

This past Saturday, there was an afternoon 2 year old party and then a 30 something birthday dinner that I was going to bring cakes for.  I thought cupcakes would be good since they are portable and at restaurants we don't need to have them slice and plate.  (One time at Poppy restaurant,  we had 2 different birthday cakes and they charged us like $3 per person per cake so doubled the plate charge so moving on will only bring cupcakes for restaurant events.)

Here is same cake with 2 variations of frosting.

• Cake was basic simple chocolate made with sour cream
• Frosting 1 was milk chocolate buttercream with choc shavings
• Frosting 2 was espresso laced chocolate buttercream

Lemony Dinner

One of my bro's friend Mike loves everything lemon thus had a "Lemony" dinner of menu below.

• Tomato Bread Pudding (My sis made)
• Sticky Lemon Chicken (Gordon Ramsey's Fast Food Recipe)
• Roasted Garlic Potato
• Lemon Green Beans
• Lemon Cookies

As some of you know, I am vegetarian and don't cook meat unless for friends or NCF.  Well I bought pre cut, organic, grain fed chicken...well when I was cleaning and trimming the parts, i found feather still on the wings and freaked me out.  I had to call my bro to come and finish the chicken because I couldn't.

Brunch Before Airport

Before Emily departed for airport, we had last brunch with sibs, mom, and little Dorry & Sophie. Had blueberry & apple cinn coffee cake, spicy potatoes, goat cheese & spinach scrambled eggs, brown sugar glazed peppered bacon, british roasted tomatoes, and fruit salad.

Happy Hour at Taste

Went to SAM for the first time...

They featured Hopper's work on women. After visit, sat for drinks and dessert at Taste. Taste is very modern food. We had pot de creme which was great because it had a nice surpise caramel at the bottem of the bowl. We also had asian pear crostada which was pretty but a miss. Asian pears are like watermelon, it's full of refreshing liquid, when you bake it the sugar doesn't caramelize like with peaches or apples so it was kinda soggy crunch which was not good. Asian pear is good with cold desserts and fresh to give a nice refresher to a heavy or decandent dessert. Will have to go back for some main items.

Yakisoba

Simple yakisoba with tofu and lots veggies.

Dong's Hosted Dinner for Emily

Dong's dinner menu was baked white fish, pasta with red sauce, winter veggies, and garlic bread.

Soung's Hosted Dinner with Emily

Soung's dinner for Emily was roasted chicken, veggies, potatoe, and dessert of molten chocolate cake that Bennet really enjoyed.

Holiday Dinner with Friends cont'

Here are a few more pic from the dinner....

Soung and I had it with seared tofu since we are veggies. I should say all photos are courtesy of Emily who takes great pic. I will be taking future pics which prob won't be as this good. :)

Eat your edamames...

Holiday Dinner with Friends

My sibs and I each hosted dinner for Emily. This was my hosted dinner for Emily. My first time cooking scallops. Here was menu: (Nibblers) cheese, fruit, cracker plate; (starter) butternut squash soup with corinander creme and spicy toasted pistasious, (main) seared scallops with miso glace and steamed edamame topped with black sesame seeds and lemon zest, (dessert) valencia pot de creme with whipped cream and simple short bread. It was yummy and I will try the main entree again with white fish.