Food Fest

I love my family. They're the ones that gave me my love for food. Every time we all get together to catch up, 99.9% of the time it is around food. Last weekend was no different. My cousins decided to have a mini food-fest at their house because my cousins from Sacramento were coming over. We wanted to celebrate their wedding anniversary and some birthdays. As expected, I came home with a satisfied and full belly.

 Tofu Salad - The only healthy thing on our menu.

Yummy, yummy crab.

Homemade Pot Stickers. Pretty garlic-y. Loved it.

Rice Noodle with Chicken Casserole.

 Sea Bass.

 Shrimps and Scallops.

 Taro and Egg. I loved the sauce that went with it too. Sprinkled with Scallions.

For dessert, we had Donut Sundaes.I made sure to get Krispy Kreme donuts. You can't see the donut, but it's underneath there somewhere. Topped with ice cream, whipped cream, nuts, bananas and maraschino cherries. I could do without the cherries and whipped cream. But, it was still good.

 Ira and I also bought a bundt cake to celebrate the birthdays. This was from Nothing Bundt Cakes. I love their cakes. Very cute. They have designs for all sorts of occasions. This bundt was white chocolate raspberry.

 To drink, we had a few shots of this Coconut Vodka. Surprisingly pretty good. It went down smoothly. We also had some of my cousins husbands home made Chardonnay. Best Chardonnay I've ever tasted.

Beard Papa's

As a thank you for babysitting my sister-in-law's two Yorkie's, Ira & I got a box of Beard Papa's cream puffs. I've only heard about this place in passing so I didn't know too much about it. I found out that Beard Papa's  is a Japanese Sweet's Cafe.These cream puffs are huge! The custard that is inside is not too sweet. Just right. I really liked the plain one on the left. The chocolate one was too sweet for me. It's very flavorful though. The custard tastes best when it's right out of the fridge. The bread is perfectly soft. Overall, I'd love to try more of what Beard Papa's has to offer. They have a coffee flavor which I'd like to try next.

Burgers for Dessert Anyone?

Okay, I have to try to make this on my own. My cousin made this for her son's 3rd birthday this weekend. Dessert sliders. Ingredients: white sponge cake, colored icing and devil's food cake. Pretty easy, but I bet it takes awhile to make. Waiting for the icing to cool takes too long in itself.

Burgers and Fries

Veggie Burgers

Epic Fail: Fruit Pie

We got a recipe book from my cousin for our wedding and I thought I'd try out her fruit pie. I felt compelled to try out a pie recipe after my company found out a pie competition was added into a BBQ fundraiser contest that we won last year. Of course, we are set on keeping our trophy at our company, so I thought I'd try out a pie.

For one, I've never baked a pie, aside from pumpkin. Plus, the recipe was kind of short, so I hoped I was reading everything correctly. Complete failure of a pie! I must ask her what I did wrong.First of all, the inside mixture was pretty liquidy. Not a thick texture I was hoping for. But, when my cousin made her pie at our house about a month earlier, her mixture was kind of liquidy and leaked through onto the pan. So, I thought I might have done something right. I was so wrong. (Plus, I added a little more wine that she instructed, but I don't think that made too much of a difference.) This wine was very tasty too. Wandering Grape Merlot. Bad picture though.
Second, for the crumb topping, I accidentally melted the butter too much, so it created a paste-like topping instead of crumb topping.

When I baked it, even after an hour in 400 degree heat, the pie never thickened. *sigh* First fruit pie turned out to be a fail. Next time.

Cupcake Kits

I love cupcakes. I made some simple ones for my sister in laws baby shower, and my cousin is now selling hers, so I'm even more infatuated with trying new types of cupcakes. Then this was posted on one of my favorite blogs, OhJoy! The cutest cupcake accessories. They're from the Meri Meri store. These are my favorites. (The bear one is because my husband likes bears. heehee.)

VcynhekalDesigns: Mini Bites

I'm so proud of my cousin! She's always loved cooking and baking and she's now making it something she could earn some money on. She started her own mini store at Etsy where she's going to be selling her mini cupcakes. She came over and had us taste test her mini bites and pick our favorites. They come in blueberry, strawberry, raspberry and blackberry. Although she can make others if she's asked. She can even mix and match the icing colors too.

The icing has got to be the best I've ever tasted. Very light and fluffy. She also told me it's not as fatty as other icing. Exactly how I like it. I must learn how to make her icing.

My favorite is the raspberry, although my cousins and husbands like blueberry the best. The blueberry has a lot of flavor and there's no denying that it's blueberry. The strawberry taste is very mild, not as strong as blueberry. I'm not sure, but she may test it out again with more strawberries.

Either way, they're the perfect dessert. They're very mini, so you can pop it in your mouth in one bite. This also gives you the option to try all the other flavors without getting full. That's one of the downsizes to larger cupcakes. It doesn't give you a chance to try other flavors because you still have to finish the large cupcake.

BlackberryBlueberry
RaspberryStrawberry