Friday, February 26, 2010

Shiz Can't Cook Series: Carbonara Pasta

Both Sat & じゅるる has made carbonara for me, but I've never made it myself.

But since I get hungry every 2-3 hours, and I can't live off of eating peanut butter granola bars every day, I decided to make it myself.

I think you're supposed to use bacon, but greasy meat doesn't settle well in my belly right now... so I decided to go w/ oyster mushrooms. Not that mushrooms are easy to digest either.

And じゅるる told me to take the pot off heat & pour in the egg... but I was kinda slow, so the pot wasn't hot enough & I had to re-heat. Causing some scrambling of the egg.

But it came out pretty good.


I need to add more salt, though.

The pasta (carbs) and eggs (light protein) is easy to eat these days. Maybe I'll have this every day. Am I allowed to add spinach in the mix too?

Wednesday, February 24, 2010

Shiz Can't Cook Series: Crock Pot BBQ Short Ribs

So we received a Crock Pot from Ichigo (she won it at a bingo game).

じゅるる made a beef stew(?) the other day. Came out pretty yummy.

We were looking through the instruction booklet & it mentioned making BBQ ribs using the Crock Pot. Really?

So we went out and bought beef short ribs (on sale at Ralphs) and two bottles of BBQ sauce, and dumped them into the Crock Pot along w/ chopped onions. Just like the instructions said.


And the ribs simmered in the Crock Pot overnight.
Smelled wonderful...
But came out kinda black...?


And the taste...
It's a bit vinegar-y (I would have preferred it sweeter), and a bit fatty (maybe we should have burned off the fat by pre-grilling the ribs?), and a bit chewy on the edges (should have constantly turned the meat pieces around in the pot)... but not so bad. The meat came out super tender.

We'll try it again next time w/ less time in the Crock Pot and more meat.

Monday, February 15, 2010

Big Four-O Birthday Dinner

Today was じゅるる's 40th b-day.

We made reservations at Lawry's, since じゅるる is a meat eater.
He went for the Lawry's cut, I went for the English cut. I decided to try well-done this time too.

At the end of the meal, じゅるる said he was so full he wanted to cry (from the pain?). He doesn't think he can eat a Lawry's cut anymore... so he'll have to downgrade to a California cut next time.

Oh, since I told them that it was his b-day, they brought out a cake. Altho we were waaaay too full to eat much of it.

Once we got home, we went to Koge Haus b/c Sat bought an ice cream cake for him. Of course we were too full to eat that too, so we had a tiny piece. And took the rest of it home.

Saturday, February 13, 2010

Baking Party Surprise

We had a mini baking party at our apartment today.
It all stemmed from me seeing holiday cookies that were decorated... and wanting someone to throw a cookie baking party, so I can decorate cookies w/ colorful frosting.

Well, it didn't end up like that... since we made things that didn't require any decorating. We made oatmeal & chocolate chip (lace) cookies (by Ards), lemon bars (by Steph, Sasami & Ards), rice krispy treats w/ chocolate (by Dee), Russian tea cakes (by Dee & Shiz) and brownies (by Sasami).

I thought it was a simple baking party among the girls, but they had planned a surprise preggie shower. So when I went to pick up walnuts & pecans at Trader Joe's w/ Sat... they had all assembled & surprised me when I got back home.

じゅるる was in on it too.
They're all trickies!
Or I'm just not a suspecting type?

じゅるる was a bit worried cuz I don't like surprises (or surprise parties)... and I didn't want to have a preggie shower cuz I'm not really into that stuff. But I really enjoyed today's party & surprise.

Thank you, girls (+ two boys).

PS. Photos coming to Sat's Flickr soon.

Wednesday, February 10, 2010

Hospital Tour

We went to St Johns for a tour of their facilities.

There was a brief orientation in the conference room, where they wheeled in some refreshments. The same guy brought in a cart of fruits & sandwiches, and we got all excited... but it was for some other group. Boo!

The hospital is brand new (about 2 months old), so everything is shiny and clean. Well, I guess everything should be clean at a hospital...

The L&D room isn't that big, but the PP room is pretty spacious.
Both rooms have their own bathrooms & showers, LCD TV and sorts... and the most important thing... WiFi internet!

Apparently we get to stay in the PP room for 2 days & 2 nights, and we can have as many visitors as we want... but I don't know who'll be visiting. Maybe I'll just enjoy the room all by myself. I hope they have cable.

Monday, February 8, 2010

Roomba Adventures: Carrying Around a DVD

Our Roomba (still not named yet) cleans every week on Monday.
I was home today when it started.

Since we just re-arranged the room, it had to re-learn where all the obstacles are... and sure enough, it got stuck behind the TV stand again. It sucked up a cable for recharging my Black & Decker screwdriver *laugh*

Anyway, while I was in the kitchen... I heard something fall to the ground.

I look over towards the TV, and a DVD set of West Wing fell down. I guess Roomba hit against the chair the DVD set was sitting on...

And on top of the Roomba... the 4th disc was sitting on top.


Teehee!

Sunday, February 7, 2010

We're Open to Guests!

We put together the couch today.

Even tho the instructions were 20 pages long... it wasn't as difficult as we thought it would be.

And before the final pieces were assembled and linked together, we did a whole switch-a-roo of the living room set up. So now the TV is along the east wall of the living room, and the couch is sitting in the corner of the west & south wall.

It looks like we have more space, even tho we have more furniture.
Strange...

There's plenty of room for people to sit, so we can have visitors over now.

Anyone up for a takoyaki party?

Saturday, February 6, 2010

Goodbye Burbank

We moved out of the temp housing at Burbank today.

Damn, we were there for 3 months...
So we had accumulated a lot of stuff.

We bought an extra set of hose-type shower head, since I broke my foot & had trouble bathing... and an extra set of foot stool (for showering and toilet-ing)... we even took our panini grill so I wouldn't starve to death while じゅるる was at work.

One thing we'll miss is cable.
We haven't decided if we want cable here yet.

Oh yeah, we also got our couch delivered today.
It came in four pieces, so we'll be busy putting it together tomorrow.

The delivery guys didn't take our old couch away, so we'll need help lugging it outside (and I'll call the city to have it hauled away).