All Things Chill

I loved this movie. LOVED IT. I’m sure you’ve already heard great things about it, so I’ll just say this: OMG SO GOODS.

We watched the movie at Majestic Bay Theatres, a family-owned neighborhood movie jaunt. A woman celebrated her 92nd birthday there and everyone in the theater sang her happy birthday. LOL. It was adorable and totally set the mood for the movie. I even got a shirt out of it!

As for the movie, I can honestly say that this is my *favorite* Pixar movie. There wasn’t much conflict, just a great showcase of what “longing for love” really is. Just a great story about two sentient beings being all lovey-dovey with each other. Cute cute cute.

Maybe it was just me, but I was searching for Apple cues through out the movie to a point where it was distracting me from everything. Johnathan Ive, Apple’s VP of Industrial Design helped design EVE and every time I watched that sleek white pod on the movie screen, I was looking for more design cues from every angle. Also, HUGE bonus points for the progression in the ending credits. Genius!

Go watch it, then go home, wait a few months and buy it on Blu-Ray to enjoy it all over again in high definition. Hee hee.

WAAAALLLLEEEEEEEE.

~Spec

Brunch at Kingfish Cafe! I thinks it’s adorable. THAT’S ALL KAIES?

KAIES.

~Spec

At Bowie’s Spa in the Capital Hill district - before the big cut. She won’t let me take a picture of her until later (lol). “After” pics coming soon!. Hee hee.

YAY HAIRCUT!

~Spec

I love watching Dj Qbert mince beats and snares into millions of pieces. Cooks on the line hustle with minimalistic movements day in and day out. High-profile marketing pitches. Photographs of my own that could compare to the big picture. Rock bands from back stage in sold-out stadiums. Geeky video game clan members who work together. The care and passion of a gardener. The craft of a woodworker. Emotionally-charged modern choreography. Professional bartenders. Obama’s campaign advisors at work first hand. Cutting-edge / experimental surgery up close. Lifestream websites that are beautiful and functional. Performances with phrases from Coltrane and lyrics from Hartman.

I love things which I cannot do. Not yet, anyway.

But maybe, sometime soon.

~Spec

I *thought* I took video on the 4th of July and I *thought* I would blog about ‘em, but I guess I was too distracted by the fireworks. Pictures of Matt, Liana and Stacy were taken @ Gasworks Park.

Good times!

~Spec

Saturday morning: Pork chops, mushrooms and eggs over easy. That’s it.

LOL.

~Spec

To start, I found some notes in a journal that I keep in my bag for randomness:

A chiffonade of mint to a staccato note to a twitter post (short, succinct but important).
An e-learning flash module to a fugue to an osso bucco. (scenes and layers, episodes of voices, layers of flavor)
A cassette tape to espagnole to PowerPC (surpassed by CD, surpassed by demi-glace, surpassed by Intel chips)

Random streams of consciousness. I’m in bed, looking out of my window and into a sky that has a washed out “paint water” color about it. The nights are warmer now, so the comforter and pillows #3 & #4 will eventually be pushed onto the floor by morning. I’ll be working the holiday tomorrow, so by 7:30AM at the latest, I will be in the shower singing songs from Boyz II Men’s CoolyHighHarmony album. I’ve been adopting more organic and skin sensitive products because of the damage my hands have received from being in a commercial kitchen and culinary school. S’all good. Should be going to an allergist the next day off I have.

Allergies. I really don’t have many worries in my life (which may or may not be a good thing), but the one thing I fear are undiagnosed allergies that I’m afflicted with. Jaclyn knows what I’m talking about. What if I am unable to eat shellfish? No shrimp paella, fish tacos, sushi, caviar or clam chowder. If I’m allergic to mangoes… there goes certain ceviches, fruit salads, delicious desserts and mango lassis.

Honestly, I’d rather not know. But what if I’m just afraid of the unknown in general? Well, no, I doubt it. I *did* move to SF in a month’s time and I *am* living with a girl in a new city that I honestly didn’t know for more than a year (and substantially less in a romantic fashion). I think I actually *like* jumping into the abyss. Making new friends, absorbing new cultures (in this case the endlessly interesting fashion industry) and adding another reference point to perhaps triangulate what I want out of life.

But what is it that I want? 2 years and 2 cities later, I have chunks of my life that I’d like to be realized, but there are so many things in the air right now… so many paths to take… so many ways to live. I know I can succeed. I’m able to put my head down and work, but I’m also able to keep my chin up and lead. My mind is craving something bigger than myself. I want to be planning while I’m doing laundry. I want to be calculating on the bus ride home. I just want to work.

Wish me luck sleeping through pre-4th firework antics. Hee hee.

G’nite

~Spec

French Toast pudding with Butter-Rum Sauce and Freshly Whipped Cream

Larger view here. Liana randomly brought home a free (as in beer) huge loaf of bread from a local bakery earlier this week and as much as I like bread… I can’t eat it everyday (it cuts into my weekly 9lbs. of rice a week diet lol). So, figuring that I only have a little bit of time left before this bread goes bad, I chose to do what anyone would do with old bread: FRENCH TOAST (or as the French call it “pain perdu” or “lost bread”). LANGUAGE LECTURE OVER. NEXT!

I was pretty sure that I had an idea of how many people would be in Liana’s office today, so I busted out these really cute mini-dutch ovens to make French toast pudding. Oh, Liana, you might want to consider skipping this recipe.. it’s not very healthy. LOL.

Ingredients:

French Toast Pudding
6 slices thick-cut white bread, cut into cubes
4 Eggs
1 pint (2 cups) heavy whipping cream
1 c sugar
1 tsp. vanilla
4 tbsp. cinnamon

Butter Rum Sauce
1/2 stick of butter
1/2 cup of brown sugar (white can work too)
1/2 cup cream
1 tbsp. vanilla
3 tbsp. rum

Fabrication

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Whisk all ingredients together and pour mixture over bread cubes. Stir gently. Let sit at least 10 minutes or refrigerated & covered overnight. Spoon into heating vessel (a lightly buttered pot, mini dutch ovens or ramekins) and bake for 40 minutes.

For the sauce, melt butter in pan over medium-low heat. Add the sugar, cream and vanilla and stir occasionally until well combined. Pull the pan off the heat and add rum. Let simmer for 1 minute and serve.

When bread pudding is done, portion out onto a plate (perhaps with a ring mold) and spoon rum-butter sauce on top and a dollop of whipped cream. Serve for dessert or a naughty breakfast. Hee hee. Honestly, it’s a really easy recipe that served 6+ people and only cost me $6 (with the free bread). YAY.

Sex-ified French Toast!

~Spec

I’ve been twittering this whole saga from the beginning, but if you didn’t know… Liana (she blogged recently!) and I recently swapped couches with a neighbor. w00p w00p! Why? Well, they’re selling their place soon and they’d like a smaller couch to make their living room look bigger (recommended by their realtor). So, after talking it through, they asked us if we wanted to swap couches straight-up. Here were the terms:

HELL YES. It really was a no-brainer. Our couch has no real cosmetic issues and still has that “new couch cushion springback.” Their sectional is HUGE, with a great broken-in feel. Now Liana can veg and watch TV and I can surf on the net without burning her face with the bottom of the laptop. LOL. We’re all jazzed how everything worked out. YAY WE CAN HAVE SLEEPOVERS NOW. LOL.

Thanks guys!

~Spec

Via Skratchworx. Midi controlled sexiness. I love my Technics 1210’s, but I’d love a separate scratching gizmo to take on the road with me.

SELL THIS PLZ!

~Spec

Now reading: Michael Ruhlman’s Elements of Cooking. Ruhlman wrote about staple meals, and I couldn’t get my mind off a perfectly roasted chicken. So.. uh… I made one (just like before) and served it with oven roasted new potatoes and steamed broccoli. Hee hee.

That is all.

~Spec

Sometime last week I had a hankerin’ for some Benihana - You know, the place where people in white chef uniforms who come to your table and cook whatever you ordered right in front of your face. Cool, yes? Yes. Does it get old? Ye… well… in the midwest, it never did. HEE HEE. ANYWAY, is it expensive? Hell yes. Well, what’s a boy to do?

COOK IT. I mean, it’s a great place and all, most people come for the “show”… AND it has good food… but at its very core, it’s just great ingredients seared with a lil’ bit of butter and/or Asian accoutrements. Plus, every time I went there as a child, I made sure to take mental notes to see what they did. I mean, the menu changes, but the show pretty much stays the same, AMIRITE? Hee hee.

Well, I found myself in the seafood section of Uwajimaya (Japanese grocery store to Seatte-ites) and I happened upon calamari steaks. EEEEE. If you’ve been to Benihana, you know what I’m talking about. Mainly, it’s the rings / tentacles that are battered and deep fried at your local pub… just HUGE and served as main protein. Think one REALLY flat scallop, or something. MOVING ON.

Since I wanted to be all up onz the decadence, I figured I’d take this meal surf & turf-y with a decent ribeye at the local market in my neighborhood. Honestly, I’d bust out a recipe, but all I did was pat both the calamari and the steak dry with a paper towel, seasoned with salt and pepper and seared both sides in their own pans on medium-high heat finished with a little nub o’ butter on top - I finished the calamari with a bit of lemon and sprinkled some more toasted sesame seeds on top. After 10 minutes of resting, I then proceeded to cut everything into 1 inch cubes and served on a plate.

I also found a recipe of their hot mustard sauce on the Internet, which called for whipping cream of all things. SKIP. I used the same ingredients as the recipe here, but without the whipping cream - it just seems so damn unnecessary.

5 Tbsp Dry mustard
2 Tbsp Hot water
1 Tbsp Sesame seeds; toasted
1/2 Cup Soy sauce
2 Garlic clove; crushed

Mix mustard with hot water to make a paste. Then, throw everything in a blender and pulsate until smooth. Serve with any simply prepared steak, seafood or chicken.

I also altered the ratios of the mustard and the garlic cloves since I wanted more of a pronounced flavoring ’cause I was eating it with white rice. Also, I’m secretly trying to expose the delicious dipping sauce that Fu Man Dumpling serves at their tables. It’s like CRACK.

So there you go. Simply prepared proteins with white rice, a hot mustard sauce and a few other veggies you see at everybody’s favorite “American-Japanese” (not the other way around) restaurant. Also, at the fraction of the price. Easy peasy. Eating it all outside while having a beer is also a plus. Hee hee.

YAY Benihana at home!

~Spec

Youtube link here. @ Yosemite, trying to video blog the entire journey… and failing at the first scheduled rest point. LOL. WHERE ARE WE???? Jade wins!

(As always)

~Spec