Sam is a published writer!!  This is amazing. It’s barely been 3 months since graduation and she is a real-life writer.  This gives me faith that people appreciate good writing, that there’s a place for really truly beautiful things.

We went to Good Girl Dinette to celebrate and had crispy tofu rice cakes, which Sam called, “the best things ever”, and bun and curry.  But food is besides the point.  Sam is published!

Remember Costco churros? Yeah I still eat those. How do they keep them crispy under a heat lamp??  Costco has all sorts of secrets.  I made my own version for a party at the restaurant with two dipping sauces–dark chocolate cayenne sauce and coconut white chocolate sauce.

blueberry cornmeal pancakes

BLTA sandwicb

Egg white omelette

I took Saeyoung to the airport yesterday.  Another summer has passed and I’m a little angry.  Last summer Saeyoung and I had all these amazing ideas about how we were going to have an unparalleled summer, but circumstance got in the way and we actually didn’t get that much time together.  So we put the weight of that disappointment on this summer and imagined  something idyllic, the kind of summer that becomes an isolated memory that becomes more and more idyllic as time goes by.  The kind of summer we’d be nostalgic for when we’re 50.  But we didn’t do half the things we wanted to do and kept adding things on our to-do lists.  Saeyoung worked insane hours at an internship and even more insane hours at my mother’s office.  I sweated oceans in a hot kitchen until my legs were all swollen and came home grumpy on a regular basis.  And here’s the rub: I realized that this isn’t an unfortunate circumstance.  This is just the way things work.  There is nothing unusual in this sort of disappointment or hope cut at the knees.  The rest of our lives will be negotiating how the drudge of having to be a person in the world interrupts everything else that matters.

I miss my sister.

That’s as sunshiney as I’m going to get.

i lurve tarts

chocolate with bruleed bananas

strawberries macerated in grand marnier with coconut marscapone cream

chewy ginger

vanilla bean sugar (for Shel, Marcus’ nephew!)

lime poppy seed

chocolate chip

dark chocolate, currant, and walnut

Marcus is in Baltimore visiting his family.  This is exciting.

I get to see my family at least once a week and I’m pretty sure that it’s a recuperative time for me.  After not seeing my family for more than a week I start to feel a little frazzled and maybe even a bit melancholic.  But i realize that not everyone has the luxury of family nearby and I am thrilled that Marcus gets to spend some time with his family.

I sent Marcus with some cookie samplers for his parents, his brother and sister-in-law, and his nephew.  I didn’t know what kind of cookies they preferred so I just made a general schizophrenic variety pack.  As usual, I overdid it.  You know those blue IKEA bags that can fit a 12-year old child?  Yeah, the cookies could barely fit in there.  Marcus and I broke out laughing at the hilarity of an IKEA bag of cookies.  The night before Marcus left ,my itty bitty kitchen was absolutely drowning in cookies. Marcus kept groaning that they would never let him on the plane with that many cookies and that they’d confiscate them at security check.  I told him just to bribe his way through with cookies.  No one can say no to a cookie.  It’s a fundamental part of human nature.

It’s a weird thing when things just come together.  I found out about a 6 o’clock party of 50 people today two hours before the party started.  They wanted dessert platters and I scrambled to pull something together.  And you know what?  I think I did pretty good!  White chocolate cheesecake bites, apple goat cheese honey tarts, and chocolate banana tarts.  Not bad, if i do say so myself.

]]> http://www.thesproutandthebean.com/?feed=rss2&p=2460 1 http://www.thesproutandthebean.com/?p=2458 http://www.thesproutandthebean.com/?p=2458#comments Sat, 14 Aug 2010 05:27:19 +0000 saehee http://www.thesproutandthebean.com/?p=2458

white pizza-truffle oil, prosciutto, arugula

squash blossom risotto made in a parmesan wheel

seafood pasta

charcuterie

amuse bouche

bittersweet chocolate sorbet, rice pudding, chocolate macaron

petite fours

My uncle is visiting from Korea and we went to Andrea at the beautiful Pelican Hill resort to celebrate.  I’m usually a little suspicious of hotel restaurants.  They are more often than not, overpriced and overly stuffy.  Andrea had amazing service and the food was good but I couldn’t help but feel like the restaurant was overly formal.   They made a big deal about table side preparation of the risotto and prime rib.  I’ve never really understood the tableside food shows.  It seems unnecessary.  The hand made pasta was quite good though.  Loved the free petite fours!

I recently saw a post on Simply Recipes for anadama bread.  I’ve only had anadama bread once in Cambridge with Saeyoung at an adorable breakfast place called The Friendly Toast.  The Simply Recipes post made me miss baking bread.  Baking bread is a labor of love since you can easily buy an excellent loaf of bread for under $3.    Yeast-risen breads are so romantic.  I love that you have to feed yeast, that you have to shock it into life with warm water, that it makes flour bubble and expand.

This morning we had a Les Figues meeting and I baked to loaves of anadama bread to bring with me, one with cinnamon and raisins and one that was plain.  The combination of molasses and cornmeal is really wonderful in this bread.  I adapted the recipe by replacing about 2 tablespoons of molasses for honey just to give it an extra sweetness.

The bread was deliciously tender with a very elastic crumb.  I’m so excited for this bread!  I want to make another batch, maybe with a cinnamon sugar swirl.