6.12.13 || LOVE

Beautiful Wonderland | via Tumblr

To my love,

Thank you for making me laugh.

Thank you for making me blush uncontrollably.

Thank you for the butterflies in my stomach.

Thank you for your kindness, love, and support.

Thank you for being my best friend, companion, and partner in crime.

Thank you for yesterday, today, and tomorrow.

Thank you for every special moment I cherish.

Thank you.

(Lucky to be in love with my best friend)

Happy 4 year anniversary! Only 5000 more anniversaries to go! I can’t wait to see what the future will hold for us! PS, I can make that special chicken again…. :D


Guess who’s the birthday girl today? :)

Oh my, seriously where has the time gone?! It’s still hard to fathom that another year has gone by and that it’s that time of the year again…my birthday. I’m still in my 20s but I just refuse to get any older, so today I’m turning another year younger ;)

Last year, I made my own birthday cupcakes, truffle brownie cupcakes with cookie dough frosting. They were the most decadent and rich cupcakes I’ve ever made. I now call them my guilty pleasure cupcake…I mean brownie and cookie dough together, match made in heaven! Check out the recipe here!

Over the weekend, we had my pre-bday celebrations! We kicked the weekend with date night Friday! Sushi and beer, our favorite!

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The next day, we started the day early and enjoyed doughnuts from our National Doughnut Day swap :)

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We spent the day with his family, napped, and had Porto’s for dinner!! We bbq’ed and I found a new way to enjoy a hot dog :)

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Every time we visit his family, I try to sneak in a trip to Porto’s. I believe Porto’s is a Southern California/LA chain; it’s a Latin American cafe and bakery. Their food is yummy!

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I tried the guava smoothie for the first time and it has now become my favorite drink! It is so refreshing! Definitely a must get if you ever get to venture to Porto’s :)

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The rest of the weekend was spent lounging and relaxing :)

Anyhoo, I can’t wait for the week to come to an end and the weekend to start! I’m looking forward to my post-day bday celebrations with my mister!!

Hope your week is going well and wishing you a beautiful day!

xoxo, kat


Hi my long lost blog, I hope we are still friends

Hello world. It’s me. Insert long silent awkward pause because I’m seriously drawing a blank and don’t even know where to begin…

Welp since my last post (Engagement Chicken), life is still the same…I’m still deathly afraid of spiders and most creepy tiny things that crawl… Life has just been more exhausting. I’m still cooking, but not nearly as much I would like. And baking…well I’m hardly baking which I am quite sad about. The only thing I am baking are chocolate chip cookies which keeps the mister happy but doesn’t fulfill my desire for creativity. Perhaps I should try a new chocolate chip cookie recipe, maybe the infamous NY Times cookie or a Thomas Keller one? But I’m just so…happy with my favorite Betty Crocker recipe! I’ve mastered it, and every time I use her recipe my cookies come out perfect and gorgeous! I hear now complaints!

Enough about me and my cookie dilemma! How have you all been? What have you been eating?! And coooooooooking!

Last weekend was the kick-off to our Summer Part 4: Misadventures! We started it off my going to a music festival in Pasadena and just roamed the streets enjoying the food and the scene. It was fun!

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And to recover from that, we spent the rest of the weekend in. I whipped up a quick healthy dinner for us to just unwind and enjoy. I made a pan seared salmon on top of a organic baby spinach salad with basic balsamic vinaigrette. It was simple and effortless, but wowed and impressed the mister!

We picked us this big beautiful filet of salmon on our way home. Nothing crazy, just good old fashion s+p.

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To get that good crispy sear, make sure your skillet is extra hot! Pour a few teaspoons of good olive oil and lay the salmon skin side up. Throw in a few chunks of butter and leave it alone for a good 3-5 minutes.

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Once that’s done, flip and cook the other side of the salmon till its cooked fully and leave on the pan for a few extra minutes to give it that extra crisp.

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While the salmon is cooking, you can easily make the balsamic vinaigrette! Then just pour it over and toss a few times to ensure that every piece of spinach is coated.

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And that’s that!

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Wishing you guys a wonderful weekend! More blogging to come :)
xoxo, kat


Engagement Chicken

engagement chicken

engagement chicken

I know, I know, I know…. I’m back yada yada yada. And yes, I have been missing in action for quite some bit now but I AM BACK!! And why not make my comeback with the infamous engagement chicken from Glamour magazine!

This was my very first chicken roast, and it will definitely be something I plan on doing again but using different flavors and spices :)

Now, back to this chicken! Apparently, this is the chicken Howard Stern’s girlfriend (at the time) made for dinner one night and I guess the story is that days later he popped the question! But that’s not the true origin of the engagement chicken.

This chicken has been around for years, like yeeeeears!! This recipe was passed down to one of the assistants from one of the Glamour fashion editors. She made the chicken for her boyfriend, who a month later asked her to marry him. How romantic! And uhhh weird that a chicken led to marriage? :/

Of course, I am a true sucker for cheeseball stories, so I gave it try! I dub this my “ulterior motive” chicken :)

The recipe itself is very basic and easy, all you really need are lemons!

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But I added in some veggies and potatoes for a more heartier meal. And to make things even easier, I went with the pre-chopped asparagus medley from Trader Joe’s! All I had to do was chop a potato into bite-sized cubes and season everything with some olive oil, salt, and pepper.

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After that was done, it was on to the fun part! Washing and cleaning the chicken! PS, thank you Trader Joe’s for pre-cleaning the inside and taking out all of the inners and packaging them ever so neatly :)

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ahem, how do I use this thing?

Oh dear… I don’t even know where to begin! At least I wished you all a happy new year, right? :)

While I twiddle my thumbs late into the night staring at a blank blog post, trying to think of a witty story to tell you guys why I’ve been missing for so long… I… I can’t come up with one. Frankly, this 8-5 lifestyle I’ve been living has sucked the fun out of me. I miss those days of doing absolutely nothing and doing absolutely anything and everything I wanted to with my trusty sidekick in tow, of course! Sigh, those were the days…

Over the weekend, he made me promise that I continue blogging and well, here I am!! I have hundreds of photos and stories I want to share! Of course these stories go way back (like our friendship, hehe :). I’ve got pics from Thanksgiving, Christmas, weekend misadventures, Superbowl Sunday, Valentine’s Day, and tons and tons of foodie pics :D

I am still that same girl that makes her boyfriend stop eating midway just so I can snap that perfect pic :). Now he’ll actually shift things around for me so that I can get the perfect angle, that’s my dreamboat sweetheart!!

Before I spam you with a million photos, I have a confession to make. I have been practicing vegetarianism for the past few months. I am a veggietarian Monday through Friday. Why? Because I’m a health kick and who doesn’t want to live a healthier life? But don’t worry, I still indulge in my beloved bacon every now and then and I do eat meat occasionally, call me a social meat eater, and when I am with my carnivore loving boyfriend :).

Okay, onto the pictures!! The weekend was spent with his family and at one of their informal family gatherings/mini parties. The weekend before, his parents said they brought a trunk full of fish with them back from vacation and his dad said he was going to make fried fish. I had his fried fish before and it’s amazing! Let’s just say, I waited impatiently for this fish all week… :)

I will let the pictures do all the talking :D

fresh fish!!

fresh fish!!

poor fishy going into the hot oil

poor fishy going into the hot oil

that was his fate :(

that was his fate :(

ooooh ahhhh

ooooh ahhhh

reincarnated and straight into my belly :)

reincarnated and straight into my belly :)

mmmmm

mmmmm

Now, fish bones scare the bejeezus. I cannot eat a fish with it’s bones attached, I fear the horrible fate of choking to death. I remember once I ordered special fish of the day at this fancy restaurant in Berlin and the waitress came back with a whole fish on a platter. I was like “ermahgerd!” Oh memories lol :)

we shared :)

we shared :)

don't let that innocent looking salad fool you! it was spicy...too spicy!

don’t let that innocent looking salad fool you! it was spicy…too spicy for my tastebuds to handle!

fish taco :P

fish taco :P

fishy bones, ermahgerd!

fishy bones, ermahgerd!

the head ruh roh

the head ruh roh

fresh batch!

fresh batch!

more salads! the one on the left is a marlin type of fish salad, aaaahmazing!

more salads! the one on the left is a marlin type of fish salad, aaaahmazing!

this was fifths for me :D

this was fifths for me :D

by the end of the night, I was an expert and deboning :)

by the end of the night, I was an expert at deboning :)

then came the cotton candy maker!

then came the cotton candy maker!

a few technical difficulties but it finally worked!

a few technical difficulties but it finally worked!

looks like a giant cotton swab lol

looks like a giant cotton swab lol

pink perfection :)

pink perfection :)

and more desserts!

and more desserts!

spotted the world's largest tv remote :D

spotted the world’s largest tv remote :D

I ate so much! I was stuffed! I’m pretty positive I ate more than anyone there! What a great weekend!

I hope you all had a fabulous President’s Day weekend and a happy Monday! Thanks for letting me share my weekend with you! And thank you all so much for checking in even on my hiatus lol. And thanks to Quirk Books publishers, I have so many new cookbooks and recipes I want to share with you guys! Eeeeep I am excited :)

xoxo, kat

 


Happy New Year

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Wishing everyone a 2013 filled with love and happiness!
xoxo, kat

Year End Review :: 2012

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Where has the time gone?! How did 2012 treat you? I hope this year went by smoothly for you!

I can’t believe another year has passed and gone. It feels like this year went by so much quicker than the last, sigh… And what about the rapture? The world didn’t end!! Actually, I’m glad the world hasn’t ended. There is so much I still want to accomplish and do in my life.

This year was amazing! I finally graduated and got my Masters degree in Economics, I found a job that I love and also got the chance to meet some pretty wonderful new friends, my blog turned 1, my boyfriend and I hit the 3.5 year mark, and I’m trying to make my last six months of being in my mid-20s stretch lol. Now that I’m older, the thought of getting older beyond my 20s kinda scares me but I’m excited nonetheless.

Here are just a few of my favorite moments from 2012:

My wings in a magazine!

He put a bow on it for Valentine’s Day :)

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