Memorial Day weekend just flew by! It was so nice to have the three-day weekend to get some relaxation in — we saw some friends we hadn’t seen in a while, watched movies and Japanese dramas, and got a lot of shopping done in preparation for Hawaii. I love shopping for summer clothes! (Except that it never gets quite hot enough to wear them around here.)
Here are some photos from Sunday, when we went to a BBQ hosted by Dan’s coworker and friend Kane, and his wife Cristina. Dan loves lizards, so he had fun with their pet bearded dragons….
Dan and Cristina at the BBQ
Cristina with Petra... Cristina's due in a month! Can't wait to meet their baby! 🙂
Hello there, little fellow.
Mouth wide open.
Our gracious host Kane in the background.
Earlier in the weekend, I went on the hill in El Cerrito with my friends Yumi and Mark, and discovered this fun swing atop the hill. It’s just a board hung on a single thick rope from a tall branch, but you can get a lot of air with it. The hill is the prominent one you can see from the highway (the 80), and the view from there is pretty neat! One one side, you can see all the East Bay hills, and if you turn around, you’re greeted with a sweeping view of the whole bay and San Francisco, even the Golden Gate Bridge! I took Dan back to the hill after the BBQ so he could check it out too.
Me on the swing atop the hill in El Cerrito.
Perhaps having a little too much fun.
Dan's turn on the swing. The branch is pretty high!
It’s back to work tomorrow, but I’m grateful that we were able to have a relaxing, productive weekend. 🙂 I can’t believe it’s already June!!! Hope everyone had a wonderful Memorial Day weekend as well!
I’ve had all sorts of cobblers before, most of which have been fruit-based — peach cobbler, blueberry cobbler, apple cobbler, cherry cobbler… all delicious. But I’d never heard of chocolate cobbler until I saw this Tasty Kitchen blog post (a cooking community founded and led by The Pioneer Woman, whom I mentioned previously) come through on my Google Reader earlier this month. I was immediately intrigued by the idea and was determined to try it, especially when my chocolate cravings struck today.
Here is the mouthwatering result:
My first chocolate cobbler!
The recipe, which you can find here, is surprisingly simple! The ingredients are very basic and are things that you normally have already stocked in your pantry — I didn’t have to make an extra trip to the grocery store or anything. The steps went super quickly, and the batter was ready to go into the oven in ten minutes!
What is at first alarming about the recipe is that you create the main cake batter, then pile on a mix of sugar and light brown sugar, and then pour hot tap water on top, and then stick it in the oven without stirring it. Sounds crazy, doesn’t it? I thought that there must be some missing step or misprint in the recipe, but the blog post assured that this was how it was supposed to be, so I trusted them despite my reservations as I uneasily stuck this visually unappealing mixture into the oven.
All watery and muddy-looking on the top. Doesn't look too appetizing, does it?
Somehow, 40 minutes later when you take it out of the oven, the liquidy portion has sunk into the inside and the top has set in a cakey layer. It’s like magic! (Or some science to baking that I can’t quite grasp.)
Out of the oven.
Smells pretty good!
Breaking open the top of the cobbler to find the chocolate oozing out.
The chocolate filling is still steaming when I break the surface. (It's similar to those molten chocolate lava cakes in that sense.)
Enjoying some chocolate cobbler for dessert!
Dan described it as a “liquid brownie” when he took his first few bites, and then when the cake mixed more with the syrupy filling, he said it started tasting like pudding. He couldn’t get enough of it and ended up eating about a third of the cobbler! 😮
It was delicious (although admittedly indulgent) and the best part is that it’s so easy to make with on-hand ingredients. Big thanks to Tasty Kitchen for such a great recipe! Dan and I were talking about how we want to try our hand at some fruit cobblers too! We’ll let you know how that goes…
Dan and I finally went to see Wicked today in San Francisco! I’ve been wanting to see the musical since last year, and so when we found out that it is leaving this September, we had to make sure we caught at least one show before then. I had a wonderful time watching Wicked at the Orpheum Theatre — the story was magical, the cast was amazing, and the music was incredibly memorable. I loved it!!!
We’ve all been through it. The unrequited yearnings of the loves we let slip through our fingers that have since gone far, far away beyond our reach. Â I am not talking about that childhood sweetheart nor your high school crush. I’m talking about those times that you are out shopping and you find an item you absolutely love, but leave it behind because you decide to shop around and check out other fish in the sea, or wait for it to come off its pedestal and go on sale. Then, before you have a chance to revisit it, it’s sold out everywhere and has forever escaped your lustful clutches, and you find yourself smacking yourself on the head and cursing that moment of frugal sanity that came between you and the dress, shoes, or purse of your dreams.
I am currently still hurting from the latest pangs of “non-buyer’s remorse” after falling under the charms of this gorgeous darling… the Mirelle Tote from J.Crew.
She was an online exclusive, and when I first laid eyes on her, I was immediately taken with her sweet grosgrain ribbon, vachetta leather handles entwined in gold chain, and luxuriously soft, buttery slouch leather. The dusty pink color is one of my favorite colors, and I knew that the purse had to be mine. But having just paid my taxes, I wasn’t ready to shell out $228 for her right then and there… so I decided to exercise some frugal impulse control and wait it out a little bit. Every so often, I’d check the site to see if she went on sale, and then one day, she was gone. Sold out. No longer in stock. Reading the words, “We’re sorry. This item has been so popular, it has sold out.” was so heartbreaking, it almost caused me physical pain.
The Claudette Tote, also from J.Crew, would have served as a comforting alternative at $175 — although still a bit pricey in my mind — but alas, she too is sold out.
Personally, I believe non-buyer’s remorse is more palpable and does more psychological damage than buyer’s remorse. When you make the mistake of making a regrettable purchase, at least you can undo it by returning it if you kept the receipt, or at least alleviate some of the guilt by giving it away to a friend or donating it to charity. With non-buyer’s remorse, there’s no undoing; it’s out of your control and there’s not much you can do about it except to mourn the loss and eventually move on with your life and hope that you will eventually meet a worthy replacement to fill the gaping void that has been left in your heart.
I hate the feeling of non-buyer’s remorse. Sometimes, if I like something enough, I even consider buying a back-up version for the future, especially if it’s something that will wear out and break over time, such as a pair of shoes I can’t live without or my favorite model of headphones. I had a pair of earbuds that I loved from Skullcandy, which broke and then when I sent it in to get replaced under the warrantee, they sent me back a pair of their newer ones which were not nearly as nice as the older model. They also broke after having an even shorter lifetime than the first pair, and I had to scour eBay to find the original model. I considered buying a back-up pair but Dan stopped me, and I just know I am going to regret not doing so in a couple years…. When The Body Shop launched their Cherry Blossom line (which, may I add, is so much better than the Bath & Body Works lines), it was only supposed to be seasonal and for a limited time so I stocked up on three bottles of lotion… and then the bastards decided to keep selling it (I’m still on my second bottle and won’t need to go back for a while). This is how obsessive compulsive I am when it comes to some of my purchases; it may sound crazy to others, but to me it’s just planning for the future.
The vanished purse been haunting me for the past couple weeks, and will likely continue to for weeks, months, perhaps even years to come. I’ve already checked eBay and other sites in hopes of finding her, but with no luck. The other purses on J.Crew just don’t compare; they look ugly and plain in comparison. A more rational person may just dismiss it, concluding that it was just not meant to be, but I can’t stop beating myself up about not following my initial instinct and indulging in the purchase. Perhaps someday, I will find just as lovely a purse that will grant me some cathartic release from this trauma I’ve suffered, but until then I will continue to pine after The One that slipped away….
P.S. Jenna Lyons, if you are reading this, please please please bring that purse back…?
We’ve been lucky the past couple weeks to have some of our friends from the East Coast in the area on separate occasions — living on the other side of the country, we don’t get many opportunities to see my friends from back home, so it’s always nice when they come to visit San Francisco.
A couple weeks ago, April and Ed came to visit. April and I were close friends in middle school, and although we lost touch after we moved on to go to separate high schools and universities, she got back in touch with me right before I moved to California and she and Ed were able to make it to our wedding two years ago! April and Ed live in gorgeous Georgetown back in DC, but April just got accepted at UC Berkeley so she has decided to get her PhD there starting in the fall. They were visiting the area to see the school, so we caught up with them over dinner in Berkeley. They will both be moving to the Bay Area in August, and I’m so excited that I’ll have one of my dearest childhood friends nearby again!
Having dinner with April and Ed at La Med in Berkeley.
This past weekend, we got to spend a whole day on Saturday with our friends Kathleen and Carlos. I went to both middle school and high school with Kathleen, and they were in the city this weekend for a conference that Carlos was attending.We spent the day at the farmer’s market by the Ferry Building and at Pier 39 before meeting up with Greg, another one of our good high school friends who lives in the city, over dinner. Here are some pictures!
Dan and I with Kathleen and Carlos at the Ferry Building in San Francisco
Enjoying some mouthwatering rotisserie chicken from the Roli Roti truck!
Dan with a Scharffen Berger mini-cake from the Miette bakery. So round and cute!
Walked over to Fisherman's Wharf... it was a windy day at Pier 39.
Kathleen and Carlos -- cute couple!
Kathleen and I at Pier 39.
The boys.
With a lobster at Fisherman's Wharf...
Greg took us to dinner at Nirvana, a delicious Burmese restaurant in the Castro.
It’s always nice to see some familiar faces from back home — it makes me feel a little less homesick. I love that even though it’s been well over a decade since middle school and high school, we can still pick up right where we left off. 🙂
Whether it be here in the Bay Area or the next time we’re back in DC, I can’t wait to see more of the friends I left back East. I miss everyone so much!
She was an online exclusive, and when I first laid eyes on her, I was immediately taken with her sweet grosgrain ribbon, vachetta leather handles entwined in gold chain, and luxuriously soft, buttery slouch leather. The dusty pink color is one of my favorite colors, and I knew that the purse had to be mine. But having just paid my taxes, I wasn’t ready to shell out $228 for her right then and there… so I decided to exercise some frugal impulse control and wait it out a little bit. Every so often, I’d check the site to see if she went on sale, and then one day, she was gone. Sold out. No longer in stock. Reading the words, “We’re sorry. This item has been so popular, it has sold out.” was so heartbreaking, it almost caused me physical pain.
