*1175 - the dream wedding

Teeny wedding with only the people who truly matter, in a beautiful little quiet home near the Pacific coast.  From-scratch food made with love, DIY decorations from the painted flower vases, to the bouquets, to the favors, to the song sheets hand-drawn by Mummy.  It was quite the family orchestration, with friends rushing to the rescue as well.

First, a few pretty pictures by 39 East Photography:

Little cottage where the Chan's + D stayed; also the site of the wedding dinner.


Where the groom's family stayed, and where the ceremony was held--a quick 30 second trot from the cottage along a gravelly road.  Magical little home with surprises in every nook and cranny.


Getting ready for the big moment ... I was so busy that this "getting ready" phase felt like it lasted all of 15 minutes, including a hop in the shower, slapping on of make up, and frenzied painting of nails (bright coral).


Hand-made bouquets made from the flowers we bought at a flower market in SF.


Flower girls and maid of honour walking down the little aisle!


Taking communion together ...


Husband & wife :)


See??  It's hard to describe in words how beautiful it was!  I want a wedding like that myself :)  Simple, elegant, cosy, magical, a day to remember.

Foodie pictures to follow ... of course I wouldn't leave those out!!

*1174 - making bagels

My first time making bagels from scratch!  I'd always been intimidated because making bagels involves more steps than making regular bread.  It turns out that it's actually not too difficult making a nice, dense, chewy (I prefer this to a cakey texture) bagel that's customized to exactly how you want it to taste.
Step 1: Combine ingredients and knead.  I decided to add raisins, cranberries, cinnamon, and cocoa powder.  Let rise.

Step 2: Punch down, shape into bagels, and let rise again--just a little.

Step 3: Broil for a few minutes to get a crisper, chewier, shinier crust.
Step 4: Boil for a few minutes.  This quickly cooks and sets the crust so that when you stick them in the oven, the insides can't rise past the crust, and that gives them their signature dense texture.  Boil longer for a chewier, thicker texture.

Step 5: Finally, bake until very slightly browned.  And there you go, your from-scratch bagels.

*1173 - mum's day

Missing Mummy (and the rest of the Chan's but it's Mothers' Day) and wishing I could be home. It doesn't get easier, the longer I am away; in fact, I think it gets harder. A three-week trip home is in the works (just have to bring it to Mr Big Boss for approval now) and I can't wait. I am blessed to even be able to take three weeks off, but of course I wish it could be more!

*1172 - ink calendar

How brilliant is this?  An Ink Calendar by Oscar Diaz - a calendar using the capillary action of the ink on the paper.

*1171 - stubbornly

A solid few months of being sleep-deprived and overworked, and I still do not have the ability to sleep early (it's a Friday, 1.30 am, and I'm not doing anything interesting, but still refuse to go to bed for no explainable reason) nor do I have the ability to rise late.

I always get unnecessarily anxious and twitchy whenever D's not around, and he's gone for the weekend + the past few days.  Poo.

*1170 - too cute

Poka likes laptops.

 

Poka likes yoga.

Poka likes laps and naps.

 

Poka likes freshly laundered clothes.

 

*1169 - bottomless brunch

Ironside: Bottomless brunch buffet for $17, bottomless mimosas for an additional $10.  (We opted out this time as it was too soon after our previous mid-afternoon hangover.)

D on the left, EV on the right.







From their website:

• Buttermilk pancakes with banana-rum syrup: I need to make this syrup some day. Mmm.  As you can see, Drew had 4 and I had 2.
• Scrambled eggs with cheese: How do they make such giant vats of uniformly textured scramble??
• Steel-cut oatmeal with vanilla brown sugar: No, thanks.
• Bacon: Yes, please.
• House made spicy sausage: Felt a little too herbed for brunch.
• Biscuits and gravy: Gross, but yum!
• Cheddar grits: I'm a grits-convert now, so of course I had to get this ...
• Chipotle-garlic breakfast potatoes: Spicier and again more herbed than expected.
• Fried sweet plantains with house salsa: Not actually a big fried plantain fan.
• Mixed green salad: Good way to pretend that your brunch buffet is good for you--also their vinaigrette was so good I had to ask about it, but alas, secret house recipe.
• Greens and beans: Forgettable.
• Ceviche: Not fresh enough, I also really dislike raw onions.
• Wheat toast with agave butter: Who fills up with toast in a buffet?? Not me.
• Bread pudding: Again, gross, but yum!

I think the food was good enough but since they don't have a changing menu, I don't think I'll be back.  At least, not for a very long while.  As a rule, I'm not an ideal customer as I don't return to restaurants unless they are (1) phenomeoeomemonoennal or (2) within 30 seconds of where I live.  We have had tons of sub-par to okay Thai food (with the exception of the crab fried rice that I still crave and love) and tons of cheap Indian food because those restaurants are located in our building/right across the road.

*1168 - settled

Today, I am settled back in SF after a couple of months of traveling to Arkansas once every few weeks.  Traveling for work has its perks and I'm very happy to have had that opportunity but I cannot deny that I AM POOPED and I'm somewhat glad that the traveling stint is over ... at least for a while!

Still, it is nice to have a neatly made bed everyday, no dishes to do, fluffy white towels aplenty, dinners delivered to your doorstep ...

Speaking of which, the boy just walked in the door with 1.5 pounds of food for our dinner, so what am I complaining about? ;)

*1167 - still tourists

We've been living here for over half a year, and our default answer to "Oh, have you seen/done the (insert prerequisite touristy icon/activity) in San Francisco??" was an embarrassed "Uh, no ..." We've done a few things, of course, but there are some things we just never made the time for.

Well, some of that was solved when the fam was here! So here we go. Lombard, the "crookedest street in the world" and also the most ridiculous street to actually live on.

Squint and you might see a little head sticking out of a car window and a hand furiously waving from the driver's side.

And Muir Woods, just gorgeous and a good hike to the top! It's very different hiking in cool, dry climes rather than sticky and buggy humidity with leeches everywhere waving their heads around in the mud. Shudder.

*1166 - life choices

These days, I find myself both in a panicked frenzy AND falling asleep with my eyes open at work at the same time. How is that possible and what can one do when one only has that many hours in a day? What a struggle to have to choose between life essentials such as work, sanity, nourishment, and sleep. Sadly, the first never goes as that cannot be compromised; the second is not always within my control, the third is not a question because I'm a pig, and the last is the first to go for me, usually. (To explain myself, taking a two minute break to pen this falls under the category of maintaining "sanity".)

*1165 - Poka's magical space

Fur-lined shelves we built specially for her, a garden we grew with birds for her to catch, and poofballs to keep her entertained.

*1164 - giant paper flower tutorial

Can someone please make me some larger-than-life paper flowers? Just gorgeous. I love whimsical, Alice in Wonderland, teeny or enormous, and kooky proportions.

*1163 - mid-flight predictions

This is maybe my third time using Wifi while flying 10,000 miles above ground. I am documenting this because it still seems so revolutionary to me to be able to be connected, chatting with colleagues, doing work, etc. while in an aeroplane. And this is one of the things that I know I will look at in a few years and SMH over how we all used to survive without this technology readily and cheaply available. For now, I will bask in the terrific-ness of not being 100% out of pocket when flying for work and hence the reduced panic after landing.

*1162 - almost 24

We're getting to the stage of life where friends of our age are getting engaged left right center. Though not quite attending friends' weddings yet--that will be a whole other stage of life!

*1161 - here in SF again

The fam is here and the sis is getting married. What a luxury it is to see them for the second time in less than half a year!! It's unprecedented.

Sis is going to have my dream wedding in a few days and I get to help create the dessert table and snack table. Hopefully I do an acceptable job, which means I had better get going on throwing the best recipes together right now.

It's going to be so lovely! My only wish is to be less busy these weeks at work, but alas that has not been the case.

*1160 - today's funny moment

Walking along from church to our brunch spot for the day (dry pork chops, never to return again), we see this across the street:



D: "The ... Rapey?!"
E: "..."
D: "... I'm an idiot."

*1159 - thirsty

What Poka does when she is thirsty:



That little pink thing is her tongue! I sat there giggling as she frosted up the cup with her breath and remembered to whip my camera out in time.

(Yes, yes, that glass is sitting in the dishwasher now.)

*1158 - the blemished vegetable

We watched the Big Waste on Food Network where Chef Bobby and Chef Anne and Chef Lady-Who-Judges-Chopped and Chef I-Can't-Remember-Actually rummaged through "waste" from farms and grocery stores. Now that was eye-opening, about as eye-opening as Food Inc but perhaps slightly less actionable. Still. Here is the main takeaway.

When we're shopping for fresh produce, look out for that slightly bruised but otherwise still lovely eggplant. The red pepper with the extra lump that makes it look extremely awkward. The tomato with a scar down its side because it burst from over-juiciness when on the vine. The squash with a scratch because it got bumped around in its crate on the way to the store. The cabbage with a yellowed and dusty leaf on the outside that, when removed, would reveal a perfectly good head of cabbage.

It's hard to choose these in favour of their perfect-looking siblings, because, when there are choices available, why settle for less? The answer is that these blemished products, though perfectly good and edible (and once you chop them up and cook them will look exactly the same as their "perfect" counterparts), will at the end of the day be thrown out or not even make it to the grocery store but discarded at the farm, because we as consumers shape what we want to see on the shelves. If we reject these blemished products, they would join the gazillions of tons of food waste that really didn't need to be wasted.

It doesn't have to look perfect--as long as it's still fresh and good, it'll look/taste the same in the end. (I'm not talking about buying rotten or mouldy products, of course, those truly are "waste" products.)

Buy a blemished vegetable the next time you shop, and maybe we can help solve this problem one veggie at a time. Veggies aren't perfect, save a blemished veggie today!!

*1157 - a hearty breakfast

A lovely little home-cooked breakfast. Eggs two ways, scrambled and eggs in the basket, heart-shaped of course!

*1156 - if you had to write a caption

How would you caption this?