The last supper

For my last dinner in the states before moving to Paris, Wendy and Dave treated me to Gary Danko in San Francisco for a belated birthday/going away gift. If they were looking for a great present for me, a dinner with the two of them here definitely fit the bill.

Birthday clam bake

Yes, I know. My birthday has come and gone, but for some reason I haven't been able to bring myself to blog about it. I guess this year I just really didn't want to celebrate it.

I'm on a tirade of hedonistic gluttony before my departure for Paris, so I decided I wanted a low key, yet tasty dinner for my birthday. The weekend prior, we feasted on several types of red meat, thus I figured an old-fashioned clam bake would do the trick.

Into the pot went sauteed onions, white wine, stock, fingerling potatoes, four pounds of clams, two pounds of shrimp, and a very unhappy lobster named Ira. Why Ira? We had just watched "Funny People", which in my opinion, was not funny in the slightest.. and decided to pay homage to the main character.

Here is Ira and his friends. They made for a delectable dinner.

Nutella tiramisu

The past week I've been running around like a chicken with my head cut off. From packing to moving to prepping for the party, I've been pretty exhausted. My brother and Wendy were so kind as to throw me a going away party that I was compelled to contribute. My offerings? Twenty pounds of korean short ribs, ten pounds of pulled pork (for sandwiches), two pitchers of peach sangria, 101 jello shots, chips, and a huge bowl of guacamole made of sixteen avocados. On top of that, we had a keg, tri-tip, rootbeer floats, and tons of other food brought by our guests. To say the least, we know how to party, especially when it comes to food. Of course I couldn't show up to my own party without a dessert, so I quickly threw together a Nutella tiramisu.

I used a basic tiramisu recipe that used marscapone cheese and whipping cream. To the cheese mixture I added about a half cup of Nutella. I garnished it with chopped up Italian chocolate with hazelnuts.

Now all I need is to catch up on some well deserved rest. But after all the eating, maybe a 10 mile run might be more fitting.

Chocolate nutella cupcakes

This week marked the great exodus from my apartment to my parent's house. I'm officially homeless for the next couple of weeks, but more so, I'm kitchen-less. Its difficult baking in a kitchen you're unfamiliar with. You don't know where anything is, how finicky the oven can be, and in a way it puts you out of your baking groove.

Growing up, my parent's kitchen was a danger zone. For the most part I was prohibited from entering and when allowed to help, I was assigned menial tasks like peeling garlic. Yay, another head of garlic to peel. Woo! You see, some people have two left feet. As a child I had two left hands. I have many a memory of breaking dishes, my mother yelling at me to stand frozen where I was while she scurried around me with a broom or dust-buster.

Nice weather...

Well okay the last few days it has been rainy, but last week was really nice and I didn't get a chance to post any pictures.

I biked down to the Mountain View farmers market and then out to Shoreline park to have a picnic (yes by myself).

Pics of the narcissus and some pretty greens from the farmers market as well as the park where I camped out reading:

Lunar new year part 2

Saturday evening was Margie's (Lynda's future daughter in law) bachelorette party. Suffice it to say, I overdid myself. I hit an all time record low. Thank god Chino was there to pick me up several times (figuratively AND literally). I love that girl. Oh what would I do without her? I'd probably be dead in a dumpster somewhere...

She's so cute!! Before the night went downhill:

Lunar new year part 1

Food and family.. and little red envelopes. Thats what lunar new year is all about! Today I went to my aunt's house for lunch. We weren't done eating until 4... *sigh*.

Was the typical family get together. The aunts always remembering how we used to be so young.. asking when I'm going to get married.. etc. At least they didn't do the whole pinching "ooh you're losing/gaining weight" bit.