New images

For the two people who actually read my blog, I took yesterday and today to put up old and new pictures. I have new entries beginning from December. I have pictures and writing for my trip to SF in December, the annual Christmas party, an outing with Paul and the ladies, and things I've done with Diego recently. :) In case any of you two are interested.

Bakery: Open for Business

For whatever reason, I've been on a baking spree. I think I'm bored and stressed out, and cooking is a good outlet for my emotions. I bought this baking book a long time ago. I think it was when I was in Berkeley. I never used it, actually, but it's been getting some good use now.

So far I've made pumpkin muffins, carrot muffins, cinnamon refrigerator cookies, pumpkin spice bread, a braided loaf, apricot coffee cake, cinnamon rolls, and gingerbread. I've been in the kitchen for countless hours. For two days in a row, I was baking for 8 hours straight. I didn't sit down or even leave the kitchen. Baking may relieve stress, but it sure is tiring. Especially bread.

A lot of the things I've made, however, have not turned out as well as I hoped. I think there's something wrong with the recipes, because I follow everything exactly. For the cinnamon rolls, for example, I would have put much less syrup and MUCH MUCH more cinnamon and sugar on the sweet side of the roll. Just things like that. Also, the apricot coffee cake was a tad bit sour. I would have added more sugar to the filling if I had known that it was going to turn out that way.



Cinnamon rolls. 


Apricot coffee cake/bread 


Braided loaf 

Beach Sunday

Today was a lazy day. Diego and I meant to get up early and hang out, but that didn't happen. I think we left the house around 3pm. First, we went to 2nd street in Long Beach. I wanted to check out Banana Republic (which Diego just loves, note the sarcasm). I bought some stuff last night, and I had a 15% discount coupon. However, I didn't bring it with me, and I couldn't use it. I figured that if they had the same clothes there, I could return my purchase and buy the items again with my coupon this time. However, they didn't have what I was looking for. :(

After our clothes search, we drove down to Seal Beach. We walked down to the pier. It was freezing, and I thought that I was going to die. I should have brought a jacket. There were these things in the air that looked like big kites. Well, they were arcs in the air. I didn't think too much about it, but on closer inspection, and as we made our way farther along the pier, we saw that they were not kites. In fact, they were a method of propelling or dragging water skiiers along the ocean's surface. That was cool, because I've never seen it before. They would adjust the positioning of their "kites" and they would drag them along any given direction. I decided that I wanted to try this, but couldn't figure out how they left or returned to shore. Hmmm...

When we got to the end of the pier, I decided I was hungry and we went to Ruby's. The guy who took down our names said I looked familiar, and he even asked if I had worked there previously. That was sort of weird. Sorry I had to let him down. :)



Diego drinking my strawberry shake. 

I hadn't been to Ruby's for a long time. I think the last time was when I was in high school. I remember that we used to get citizenship cards, and Ruby's was one of the places at which we got a discount. Also, there's one in the PV mall, and I remember always eating there before or after ice skating in the indoor ring. Since I wanted that strawberry shortcake ice cream thing at TGIFridays, with no success, I got a strawberry milkshake here. At first it was really, really good. However, it started having this weird taste later, so I was much less ecstatic about drinking it. Diego helped me out and drank the part that was left in the metal mixing cup.


Micky Mouse fried zucchini at Ruby's 

I also decided that I really wanted some fried zucchini. Let me just say, Hof's Hut has THE BEST fried zucchini ever. My parents always ordered it when we went there, and now I order it everytime I go. I also have a birthday coupon for Hof's Hut, but of course, I didn't bring it with me. I don't know what's up with me and having all these coupons I don't actually carry. So we got the fried zucchini at Ruby's. It actually wasn't bad. It was hot, and crunchy, and good tasting. Nothing compared to Hof's Hut, but that's an unfair matching.


Diego, smirking, at the camera 

By the time we were done eating, we were WAY late to church. I think we got there 30 minutes after they had already started. *sigh* I've really got to work on my punctuality.


Diego at the Seal Beach Pier