I'm Alive...

Life got kinda busy all of a sudden with visits with good friends, weekend trips away, babies to coo over, work events and general exhaustion. So I took a hiatus from blogging and realized that where I left off, a good portion of you may be wondering if the mangoes did me in, after all!

I'm back, I'm alive and breathing so let's begin where I left off (you'll just have to ignore the time lapse in when things actually happened and when I post about them).  Really, you'll see why the past weeks have been so busy for our household!  Thanks for hanging in there.

xoxo
Joyce

My Baking History, Continued

Continued from yesterday's post, my reflections on all the baking I've done throughout my life...

Even in graduate school, I found myself baking at the most unexpected times. Most of our classes were organized around group projects with an accompanying presentation. To make one of my first group presentations stand out, I made square cookies with the Ikea logo frosted on them. Little did I realize that word would spread, and all my professors came to expect cookies with the group projects I was involved with. As in, points would be docked unless I showed up with cookies in hand. I graduated not only with a degree, but with a reputation as the girl that baked for class!


I carried my habit of baking into the workplace, as a way to break the ice when I was new on the job and eventually, a way to celebrate coworker’s birthdays. I actually credit baking for these birthdays as expanding my culinary horizons. I was very hesitant about tackling new things at first, but ended up being motivated to try things like carrot cake from scratch (with hand grated carrots, no less). This marked a shift from making only recipes that relied on work-arounds such as box mixes to focusing on making things from scratch.
 
When Andrew and I first started dating, I knew I had a great (and perceptive) guy on my hands when he starting gifting me with baking-related things. I know it sounds like a no-brainer to buy a baker things to use in the kitchen, but I swear most people seem to underestimate how much enjoyment I get out of things like spatulas, sprinkles and cupcake liners! And I still love the fact that he proposed to me with a cake.  It was so perfect because it's so us.
 
And on to the present - I'm obviously obsessed with baking and food.  I have a reputation as being a baker at work (the go-to person for bake sales), so much so that I met a coworker's husband for the first time the other day. I didn't expect him to recognize me in any way, but upon hearing my name, says, "Oh, you're the cupcake girl."  His wife had brought him one of these cupcakes from the shower.
 
So that's me, the baker, as seen through some random memories and anecdotes. So enough tooting of my own horn, onto the important stuff - more recipes, baking and thoughts on food!

After Wedding Chop

One of the first things on my to-do list when we came back from the honeymoon? Getting a haircut.

I couldn't find a good solo picture of myself with my hair down, a clear sign that it was getting too long and unruly and that my only way to cope was to wear it up in a bun. The picture above is from our honeymoon, showing how long my hair had grown in the past year as I grew it out for the wedding.

So maybe I should phrase it this way - one of my first acts as a married woman was to chop my hair off to a more manageable length.  This picture isn't the best but I swear both my hair and I were bouncing down the street after I walked out of the salon. It feels liberating.

Blech.

I'm sick and I'm miserable!

It started with a sore throat on Monday.

On Tuesday, I made my way into work but ended up sneezing and blowing my nose every five minutes. After getting the stink eye from my coworkers and getting the impression that they were calling me "Typhoid Mary" on office IM...


...I decided to work from home for the rest of the day, which was a good decision since I started feeling progressively worse. Worst of all, I lost my sense of taste last night so I've been unable to "enjoy" anything I'm eating.

I'm now in the coughing phase of my cold, and decided to take today off from work so I can wallow in how crappy I'm feeling. With breathing comfortably and eating taken away from me, the only thing I have left to enjoy is daytime television and napping. Thank you for joining me in my pity party. :)

One Year Blogiversary!

It's my one year blogiversary!

I should be writing something profound about what this experience has meant to me.

But simply, I'm just proud of myself for sticking with this for so long. I may have not written every day, but I made a commitment to write regularly and I've stuck with that - which means at times, you get a flood of posts.

Most of all, thanks for hanging in there with me!

To recap, I'm just simply going to list my ten favorite things I've made in the past year - after all, this blog was started to share pictures about what I was baking, in addition to keeping in touch with friends and loved ones. In no particular order:

• Shark cupcakes (My first post - where it all started!)
• Hostess cupcakes
• Ladybug cookies
• Cinnamon rolls
• Boxer cupcakes
• Cream cheese swirl brownies with Heath bars and pecans
• Caramel shortbread bars aka Twix bars
• Pumpkin bread
• German chocolate cake
• French toast casserole

It was definitely a year of good recipes, baking and eating!

What were your favorites?

Introducing My New Haircut

So yeah. I was trying to growing my hair out a little in preparation for the wedding (which is still over a year away). But long hair is annoying. And requires tons of maintenance. So I tried a new salon in Newton, had a cool stylist and got a great new haircut. I know it's not drastic but it feels great! Andrew was laughing at me as I did the "walking down the street in a hair commercial) hair flip all evening. The best part is that I think it will be easy to keep it looking this nice - yay for low maintenance! I must add that Andrew just had his longish locks lopped off this past weekend (sorry, I couldn't resist the alliteration) so we're a finely coiffed couple!

Hurting and Grumpy

While I had every intention of blogging up a storm tonight, I managed to get a pretty nasty burn on the pad of my middle finger on my left hand. I've been steadily icing it for the past three hours but it still hurts like crazy each time I try to remove it.



And typing with one hand is just not cutting it. Any suggestions for home remedies to make it stop hurting? Aloe isn't doing anything. And how the heck am I going to sleep tonight?

Update: I managed to figure out a solution to help me sleep - I dunked my whole finger in aloe and then hung my arm off the bed in front of the fan. I ended up sleeping like a baby, although my arm hurt this morning from the awkward position I had held it in. And the best part is that most of the sensitivity is gone from the burn, although I have a nice blister now.

On a Short Hiatus

My apologies on the lack of posts, it's been a crazy week at work (including driving to Albany at 5 am this morning), on top of the stress I'm experiencing through the whole wedding planning/house hunting process. Add some family drama on top of that, and I'm ready to call in for a mental health day! I should be back to normal by the weekend, and rest assured, I have some interesting post ideas bouncing around my head!

A sign that sunny days are ahead, Andrew just found out today that he got a raise! :)

Another Current Retailer Obsession

Is all Jen's fault. It started with a great birthday gift, a green ombre scarf from Martin & Osa, which put the store on my radar. Their normal prices put them way out of my budget. But with great sale prices and an extra 25% promotion running, I was like a kid in a candy store.

It all started with the Paradise Cardigan in Street Grey Heather. I had walked into Martin & Osa simply to return something I had decided against giving as a gift. The cardigan caught my eye as I made my way out the door. I tried it on, love it and the loved the fact that it cost less than $25 (down from an original $79) and bought it.

The picture doesn't do it justice - it's this beautiful silver shade, super soft and has a delicate knit. I wore it with a black tank over the weekend.

Because I liked it so much, I went online and ordered it in bilberry purple. And got suckered into a few other things along the way, like:

the Cowl-Neck Sweater

I've been obsessed with cowl necks for the past year and although I loved it in black, I already own a cowl neck sweater in that color. I got it in Raffia Cream (basically white) which confirms that I'm on a light color kick when you look at all the sweaters I listed in this post.

I went back to grey (called Boulevard Grey this time but it looks exactly the same as their Street Grey Heather) for the Gossamer-Ruffle Henley.

And because I'm a good sister, I also ordered one for Amy in black.

Finally, I gave into more ruffles at Gap with the Ruffle Placket Henley Sweater

I had been eyeing this sweater before Christmas but I'm glad I waited for the after-Christmas markdowns and additional 30% promotion they're running now. Although they had it in this gorgeous pumpkin color I've been unable to locate, I seriously adore how cuddly I feel in the dove white color.

I know it's disgusting to gush this much over clothing but it's amazing how cute, new clothing makes you feel. Especially when you got it on sale. Now I seriously need to go through my winter clothing to make room for these new purchases.

Happy New Year!

It’s time for the ubiquitous New Year’s resolutions post. I’m going to try to keep it realistic, short and sweet!

In no particular order of importance, I vow to:

• Blog at least once a day. Now, I know I’m already a day behind but a part of this blogging statement will be linked into the amount of posts I produce. I won’t beat myself up if I miss a day and I also will try to provide multiple posts when inspired. So in the end, I want to end up with at least 365 posts for 2009.
• Visit one place I’ve never been to. This doesn’t have to be some sort of grand trip to another country but it also can’t be a new town in New England.
• Be healthier. Who doesn’t want to be healthier? I need to stay committed to eating healthy and exercising more often (as it’s hard to stay motivated during the cold weather). I just need to keep in mind how good I feel about myself when I am healthy – it’s not about how much you weigh, but the fact that you feel energetic and positive about yourself.
• Learn to cook. I know the basic tenets of cooking and I obviously know how to follow a recipe due to all the baking I do. For some reason, I’m intimidated by cooking actual meals. I can never think of good meals to make. I will tie the specific action of cooking one new dish each month of 2009 to spur me into action.

In terms of more specific resolutions, I decided to pick a few little things to accomplish within a specific time frame:

• In One Day – Trek over to Target in Framingham (again!) to return the floodlight I bought last week and get it in the right size. And make sure Andrew installs it (heh, heh!) So think of this a joint endeavor. Poor guy tried to replace yesterday and was the one who found out that I bought it in the wrong size.
• In One Weekend – Organize my winter clothes in my closet by color and material weight. This makes it so much easier to pick an outfit for each day. In this process, I will also sort clothing that I no longer wear and donate it.
• In One Week – Cancel my TiVo service (my box is just too old and doesn’t work accurately anymore) and get a Comcast TiVo DVR. Anyone that knows me knows how much I hate having phone conversations with any type of service provider. I always feel frustrated and taken-advantage-of at the end. I can only cancel TiVo by phone and in the past, they’ve convinced me to stick with it by replacing my TiVo box with a refurbished box (actually, they promised me a new box and sent me a refurbished one instead, and I was too weary to argue this any further). Then I have to find time to trek to a Comcast distribution center and exchange my current cable box for a new one during business hours. Ugh, I’m already dreading this.
• In One Month – Organize my financial situation. I’ve already saving a decent amount to my 401(k), I’ve upped the amount I’m saving each month with automatic transfers from my checking account into my savings, and I’ve signed up for Mint, a free financial management service that tracks your spending and your financial worth. I just need to use some of this information to build concrete goals to be working towards and actually change my spending habits.
• In Six Months – Clean the attic. I literally haven’t been up there in a year. And I think there’s black dust everywhere from roofing work that was done in 2007. Yikes!

This is all that came to mind for the moment. I hope to be writing a post one year from now that catalogues my success with these goals.

What resolutions did you make for the New Year?

Off to Japan!

My flight leaves in three hours!

The next time I blog, it'll be from Camp Zama - don't worry, I've got my camera ready to capture the trip.

See you on the flip side!

Getting the Best of My Cold

As you can tell from the content of my posts from the past week, I was not a happy camper due to a cold. Despite my best efforts to head it off at the onset of my symptoms (mainly, a sore throat), I wasn't able to prevent it completely. However, I'm convinced that my vitamins and supplements shortened the duration and lessened the severity of my cold.

Basically, my cold only really bothered me for four days. Starting yesterday, I moved onto the feeling-normal-able-to-smell-mucusy part of recovery where I horrify my coworkers with my how much I need to blow my nose. Charming, I know!

Throughout all this, Andrew has maintained his streak of remaining immune to my colds (two at current count). I think I fell in love with him a little more when he was brave enough to insist on sharing the marinara dipping sauce for our bread sticks at the height of my sickness, not knowing that he would be immune once more.

I'm Feeling Sick...

It all started on Monday. The minute I stepped into work, I noticed everyone around me sneezing and coughing. Then I started to sneeze a lot. Usually, I pop a Claritin and I’m fine since this takes care of my environmental, indoor allergies. It stopped the sneezing but by the end of the day, I noticed a sore throat.

As a result, starting yesterday, I started pouring vitamins into my body. My daily regimen to thwart a cold includes:

• Drinking lots of water, on top of the large amount I usually have. This is annoying as it results in me having to go the bathroom way too much (I know, too much information)
  
• Taking Airborne in Power Pixies form. In case you’re wondering, I can’t stand drinking regular Airborne because it’s too chalky, grainy and gross. So they have children’s version that you take like pixie stix. It’s actually pretty decent although the bubble gum flavor is horrendous.
• Taking Hall Defense drops with vitamin C, Echinacea and Zinc. These can only be taken once every four hours so I’ve been taking just regular vitamin C drops in between the Halls Defense drops.
  
  I think the combination of all these supplements are giving me around a 1000 percent of the vitamin C I need on a daily basis. I hope that I’m successful in nipping any potential cold in the bud, before it progresses past just a sore throat. I’d be disappointed to find out that the only good I’m doing is just peeing large amounts of vitamin C each day. At least I’ll have no fear of getting scurvy!

Random Thoughts from Tonight

1. It's really embarrassing having the guy waiting behind you in line watch you insert the Redbox DVD wrong twice in a row before he kindly explains what the large red arrow on the DVD box means (and I've returned these DVDs without a problem before!)
2. It's irritating to have your favorite machine (elliptical/stairmaster thingies) taken up at the gym and being forced to use random machines near them so you can keep an eye out for an opening. On the plus side, I did burn 40 extra calories doing five minutes on the rowing machine - although, I don't know how sore my arms will be tomorrow!
3. Thanks to my reading material (People and Entertainment Weekly), I figured out what the meaning of The Killers song "Human," which Camie was obsessed with when she was visiting a couple weeks back. Apparently, the line "Are we human? Or are we dancer?" refers to a Hunter S. Thompson quote, "'America was raising a generation of dancers." Now the song is stuck in my head again and I hope it's stuck in yours too.
4. Despite what Andrew says, I had no shame in returning a book to the library via its book drop slot while it's still open. Especially since I was still in my running shorts from the gym. The running shorts came in handy since I ran shivering from my car to the book drop and back.

Two New Things I Learned Today

1. Breaded eggplant on pizza tastes awesome! I think it's my new favorite combo.
2. Andrew's Mom Charlotte makes the best brownies I ever tasted - seriously. I had them warm from the oven and they had a very thick crust on top (my favorite) and a warm, goey center, with a strong chocolate flavor. I think most brownies just taste generically sweet and these stood out because they had intense flavor. I would take a picture of them but they're rapidly disappearing into my stomach!

Veterans Day

I'm typing this in bed, fifteen minutes after I woke up, which feels very decadent.

I have Veterans Day off and it feels weird to have a Tuesday as a holiday. I can't remember the last time this happened and I think it's because I must've been in school and it didn't make as much as an impact. The only bummer is that Andrew had to work today, so it doesn't feel like a true day off for me.

Regardless, I've already accomplished step one of my plans for the day, sleeping in! My plans for the rest of the day are:

• going to the gym
• baking (what will depend on my mood)
• raking the leaves - this will be a good two hour project, there are a TON of leaves out there
• going to Target - I haven't been to Tar-jay in months, which is unheard of.
• eating pizza with Andrew and his Mom for dinner in Plymouth

It's a busy day and I better get started!

Part Asian - 100% Hapa

What are you? That's a question that I get asked all the time since people can obviously tell that I'm Asian but can also tell that I'm mixed.

I don't mind answering, because I'm proud to be bi-racial. My Mom's Korean and my Dad's a typical American mutt who's primarily of Sicilian and Irish descent. The only irritating thing is being mistaken as Japanese. Mind you, this is with people not knowing that I lived on Zama. I think it's my dad's pale Irish skin combined with my Mom's eyes that makes me look Japanese to people.

Anyway, what lead to this blog topic today is the notice I received by email today:

Requested Item(s) Ready for Pickup
The item that you requested is now being held for you at the library.
Bring this library card to pick up the item by the Pickup Date below.
AUTHOR: Fulbeck, Kip.
TITLE: Part Asian, 100% Hapa
CALL NO: 305.8 F95P 2006

A bi-racial coworker I was chatting with at my company's offsite had recommended the book to me. I got excited because the phrase "Hapa" is very familiar to me. Having been lucky enough to have lived in Hawaii for a couple of years during my childhood, it was common to be referred to as Hapa. In fact, it's one of my dad's favorite expressions for me and my sister. Here's the official definition for it:

The reason I like to use the word Hapa to describe myself (and Amy) is because I view it as a positive word that is diverse in background itself. It embodies the warm Hawaiian spirit (which I know sounds corny) but it's true - Hawaii itself is such a hodgepodge of people from everywhere and it's one of the few places that someone from any ethnic background is normal.

Anyway, here's the cover of the book courtesy of Amazon:

The book is filled with pictures of different Hapas and faces a page where they describe themselves (not only by ethnic heritage but also, who they are in their own words and handwriting).

I'm going to pick it up tomorrow!