Yummy

I tweaked the recipe a bit today.  I like the rounder, smoother look, but it's not golden brown!

Weekday Grub: Tomato Soup & Porkchops

Had some leftover tomato product.  You read that right, "tomato product," that's what the can said.  I added some leftover vegetables and shrimp.

Also tried a bun recipe.  It's supposed to be foolproof, but I disagree. The one on the right was baked at 375 degrees according to the directions.On the left is one that I baked at 400 degrees. Still tastes good!

The Candy Store & KitKats

The Candy Store is a couple blocks from my apartment.  Candy is not cheap there, so when we buy candy from there, it's a splurge.

The lady told us that all these (minus the KitKat) were imported from London.  Clockwise- Grapefruit Piggy gummy, pink hard candy (can't remember the name), coconut teacake, raspberry sherbet fizzy hard candy, and soft gummy shrimp.  We got 4 pieces of each candy.  And at $15/pound, it wasn't really worth it.  I got ripped off for my KitKat too. 

KitKats! I bought the Sakura Matcha (taste like green tea to me) for $4 at the Candy Store, but found it again at a Asian market for $2.49.  The bigger box are cookie KitKats.  I didn't buy the banana flavored one because I didn't think anyone would try it with me and the maple flavored one came in a giant bag of fun sized bars. 

 Look at the pretty packaging! I really like the packaging for the matcha one.

This is what they look like inside.

Pastries!

Broke out my KitchenAid mixer.  Yes, Best Friend, that mixer!  I've been busy to say the least.

French bread.  Read the directions wrong, so the bread didn't come out as golden.  The second round of french bread looked better and tasted better, but I don't have pictures for that.

Chinese Baked Buns.  My sister rolled them, they didn't come out of the mixer that way.  These look better than they taste.

Corn Muffins! I cheated here and used the Jiffy Mix.  But I still got to use the mixer!

Bonus! Went on a mini food adventure with my sister and made a stop at Dynamo Donuts.

Top - Maple glazed bacon
Bottom left - Vanilla bean
Bottom right - Chocolate rose

Covet: Kitchen Electrics

So I read all these cooking blogs and everyone seems to have a food processor, now I think I want one...  My Magic Bullet is supposed to replace (according to the infomercial) the need for a food processor, it can't.  I don't  have room for another kitchen appliance yet.  But look at what I found today:

A 3-cup Cuisinart Mini Food Processor

While drooling looking at this, Amazon recommended the 90th Anniversary Special Edition KitchenAid Mixer to me.  If I didn't have one already, the candy apple red one would be mine!

Source

Weekday Grub: Chicken & Corn Soup

I made it to Friday! We haven't unpacked yet, so I am left with limited resources.  The canned corn is a pantry item and the eggs were already in the fridge.  The chicken was leftover from lunch with my sister.

Why haven't we unpacked yet?  R needed to unpack the TV because he wanted to watch it.  Here's how I found him:

It's done!

 This is how it looked yesterday. After a coat of primer.

Today's finishing coat:

I want to bake.

Or rather I think I'm in love with the idea of baking wonderful pastries.  That and cleaning imaginary dishes is a lot easier too.

I've been trolling around at the William Sonoma website because I have a $100 giftcard I'm dying to use.  Look at how beautiful my imaginary cakes would look and the shiny toys I could get.

I leave you with Betty White's SNL muffin skit.

Photo Dump

My kitchen looks like hell right now. I casually told my dad that I'm sick of take-out and that it's making me fat.  He told me to cook in the unfinished kitchen.  "You have a kitchen with a working stove and sink," he says.  You be the judge.

I can't believe my dad expects me to cook in here.  You can't even see the layers of dust that I sweep daily.

Here's a before of the living room window.

 Patched up, waiting for paint.

Here's the big ass hole our friend G tried to patch with plaster.  In hindsight, it should have raised a red flag.  Imagine filling in a pothole on the road upside down.  This turned into an upside down bowl. On our ceiling. 

My dad tried to even it out, but he said it would take at least 5-6 more plaster applications and wasn't worth it.  We should have covered the hole with sheetrock, not plaster. He's going to painting over this:

Here's the backsplash tiles that R and I put up.  We're going to take off the protective film after painting.  They look uglier in person. But they're done.  I will never do Ikea Fastbo panels EVER AGAIN!

She moves in mysterious ways.

Remember how I said this apartment has magical ways of surprising us.  Well, it did just that yesterday.  See that ugly part of the window sill there?  I bought wood putty to fill it.  Only to find out after ten minutes of sticky, putty caked-fingers that the putty wouldn't stick!  It's dry-rot! So R and I have to figure out a way to replace it before we paint on Sunday. Urgh.

Remodeling Sunday

R and I finally finished the backsplash tiles behind the stove. I have never had so trouble with an Ikea product as I had with these.  I think I reached a snapping point last week when I broke one. So my goal this week was just to put them in. BY WHATEVER MEANS NECESSARY.  I'm sad to say that the seams are not perfect and the gaps look atrocious.  We also effed-up the end piece that no one will see. But we're done with one side!  Now we just need to finish the sink side.  I'll post some pics when I finish that side.

On Saturdays, when I pick R up from work, I usually park at the Salvation Army lot because I refuse to pay for the meter.  I usually go into the store to buy other's people's junk for inspiration ideas . I've been reading about cloches in blogland lately and I've been coveting one.  I don't know what I'm going to use it for.

But, c'mon, don't pictures like this strike a nerve?

Source

I saw one at the store for $1.50 and was thisclose to buying it until R called.  R wanted to give his coworkers a lift.  So I put the darn thing back on the shelf because the line was too long.  It probably won't be there by the time I go back this Saturday.