Team Breakfast. Any Questions?!

"How does it feel to be married?"

I have been getting asked this question from friends, colleagues, and family since September.
My answer is usually:

"Honestly, it doesnt feel any different."

Dont get me wrong, it feels amazing to officially be married and call T my husband. But T and I have been together, living with each other for +5 years so in terms of any drastic changes to our lifestyle... nope, nothing really has changed. The only drastic change is that we got a bunch of new fancy cookware that we cant fit into our small shoebox apartment.

Whenever I have time and an excuse, I take out these "fancy toys" to play in the kitchen.

Several weeks ago, my team at work had an offsite, so I took that opportunity to finally use our new gifts like our new kitchen aid stand mixer.

I whipped up some breakfast scones and lemon pound cake for the team.
As the great American chef James Beard once said, "Food is the common denominator that brings people together."

It really is! Everyone ate the breakfast baked goods (...even folks claiming they were on a diet). 3 hours later,  we all walked away feeling much more like a cohesive team. I like to think food made a difference.... at least no one walked away hangry, right?  

homemade iced lemon pound cake and berry yogurt scones

Iced Lemon Pound Cake

Ingredients:

cake ingredients-

all purpose flour for dusting
1 and half cups flour

1/2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
3/4 cup granulated sugar
zest from 2 lemons
1/4 cup unsalted butter
1 egg
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1/4 cup plain greek yogurt (i used 2% fage yogurt)
3/4 cup buttermilk (i used buttermilk powder and diluted with water to make the liquid form)

icing ingredients-
1/2 cup powdered sugar (make sure it is sifted)
1 tbsp lemon juice
1/2 tsp lemon zest

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line bread pan with parchment paper.

2. Whisk together flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt in bowl.

3. In food processor, place sugar and lemon zest. Pulse for 30 seconds.

4. Beat butter and lemon-sugar mixture in a separate bowl. I used my kitchen stand mixer on medium speed until it was fluffy. Add egg and vanilla. Beat till mixed.

5. In another bowl, fold yogurt and buttermilk together.

6. In standmixer bowl, reduce speed to low. Add the flour mixture from #@. Then add yogurt mixture from #5. Mix on low speed.

7. Pour batter in pan. Bake for a hour, or until toothpick inserted comes out clean.

8. Cool cake on cooling rack. While cake is cooling, make your icing.

9. Add sifted powder sugar and lemon zest in a bowl. Add lemon juice and whisk all together.

Drizzle the icing over warm cake. Keep on rack to cool completely. Icing will harden over the cake.

10. Enjoy!

Berry Yogurt Scones

Ingredients:

2 cups all purpose flour

1/4 cup granulated sugar

2 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

6 tbsp unsalted butter

pack of berries (i used fresh raspberries and blackberries)

1 egg and 1 yolk

1 and half vanilla extract

1 cup yogurt (i used greek yogurt. fav is fage plain)

sugar to sprinkle over scones

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

2. Whisk flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt in bowl.

3. Place softened butter into bowl, and use fingers to rub butter with flour mixture. The result should feel like fine meal.

4. Whisk egg, yogurt, and vanilla. I used my stand mixer on medium.

5. Stir yogurt mixture into flour mixture. Dough should feel moist. Not too thick, not too thin.

6. Add berries. Carefully mix. Berries will be delicate and may smash. I used my hands to mix.

7. Put small dollops of scone mixture on baking sheet lined with parchment paper. Sprinkle sugar on scones. 

8. Bake for 45 min or till scones are golden brown. The berries will extract water, so keep an eye on the scones. It may take longer to bake completely than 45 min, based on your oven.

9. Place on cooling rack. Enjoy!

On another note- Have you seen the "David S. Pumpkins" SNL skit? I LOVE it. If you havent seen it, watch it please. You will laugh till it hurts. 

Someone at work decorated their storage as David S. Pumpkins!

Any questions?!

-mai

Mishka Commentary

One of my favorite food is berries! I was so excited when I saw Mai baking with them.
I got to eat some. NOM NOM NOM. Hope she has more offsites in the future.

Fall'n in Aloha

The last 4 months have been very crazy.

In August, I started a new job. In September, I got married. In October, I wrapped up my last month as a 30 year old. In November, I welcomed my new life as a 31 year old married woman.

T and I enjoyed our semi-destination wedding. It was so special for me to be able to share my home island to my friends and new family. We spent most of September on Kauai, surrounded by love from friends and family. It was truly an unforgettable trip filled with so many wonderful memories.

Here are a few pictures of our special day captured by the amazing Kahahawai Photography. Support local business! :)

 

Venue: National Tropical Botanical Garden and Grand Hyatt Kauai
Photographer: Christian Kahahawai

-mai

Mishka Commentary

I wasnt able to travel all the way to Hawaii but I celebrated their nuptials with my friends at the doggy care. I am so glad they are back and officially together. That makes us the official wolf pack!

Bring Me Back to Life After Hot Pilates with "Bring Me Back to Life" Bowls

Wedding countdown is on! In 73 days, T and I will be married on the island of Kauai. I cant wait to get back home to my Hawaii nei.

With wedding countdown comes final stretch wedding preparation! I've started going to a Hot Pilates class to try to look and feel my best for this special day.

For most people, Hot Pilates doesnt sound fun. However, something about going through an intense one hour class in a 95 degree room just becomes addicting. It is so satisfying to push yourself through a class- It encourages me to become stronger physically and mentally. I am hooked!

Every weekend,  I go to my class, and T goes to his Brazillian Jiu Jitsu class. 

After we go through our own individual work outs, we meet up for a special treat- We go eat our favorite acai bowls!

Acai bowls and I go waaaay back...(Note: Before they became a Jamba Juice menu staple!) Back in college, I used to work at a small independent coffee shop in Southern California. During my junior year, I would sometimes wake up at 5 am to open the cafe. We served fresh fruit smoothies, coffee drinks, breakfast sandwiches, and acai bowls! Sometimes, I would be in the back of the cafe rushing to crank out orders of cheesey egg sandwiches and acai bowls.

Feeling reminiscent, T and I decided to make our own acai bowls today.

They are very easy and delicious to make. After a hour of sweating my butt off, these bowls rejuvenate me back to life! Try them!

"Bring me Back to Life" Bowls (aka Acai Bowls)

Ingredients:

For the mixture-
1 frozen packet of acai (we found some at Whole Foods)

3 strawberries (I like to use frozen fruit)

half a banana (again you can freeze it)

1/4 cup orange juice (you can also use other types of juice, or milk)

Note: You can also add other fruit or ingredients into your mixture. Some people like to add peanut butter. I prefer my bowls to be fruit based only.

For the toppings-

half a banana (not frozen)

couple strawberries sliced (not frozen)

chia seeds

coconut shreds

granola

honey

Note: You can add any toppings you want. I added mango to my bowl today. 

1. Put all ingredients (mixture section) into a blender. Blend till everything is smooth.

2. Pour mixture into bowl.

3. Add toppings to bowl.

4. Enjoy! You worked hard for it! Your body thanks you for the deliciousness!

Brought back to life with this bowl of blessing!

We like this brand of acai! Acai is the super fruit- High in antioxidants!

For our bowls today, I wanted orange juice and T wanted pineapple juice. We compromised and did a 50/50. Isnt that what marriage is about? :)

Yummy toppings for our bowls.

Cutting mangoes like how my mom does back home in Hawaii.

Used this baby, Vitamix! This is T's parent's Vitamix.. but we have one on our registry. hint hint.

My favorite granola. Coconut chia granola awesomeness!

-mai

Mishka Commentary

So glad they are back from their exercise classes- Now we can watch Jurrassic Park!

Bienvenue en Louisiane

Holy guacamole.

My last post was back in February.
I am really not doing a great job keeping up with this blogging hobby. I apologize to folks left wondering what I have been eating/cooking the past few months.

So a lot has happened the past few months. From good news to bad news, life essentially happened.
Friends became parents, grandparents left legacies, and we had to say goodbye to beloved Anna, T's childhood dog.
We are now in official countdown mode till our big small wedding.
Exactly 3 months till I become a Mrs. and T becomes a Mr....I guess he is already a Mr.

In April, I got to spend time down in the South in good ol' Louisiana.
It was my first time in the Sugar State.

I got to spend 3 weeks in the swamp, working with locals and enjoying the good ol' southern lifestyle.
It is true! Everything is sweet there- From the tea to the people.

Here are a few snapshots of my time there:

You know you arrived in Louisiana, when the first person you see is wearing purple and gold. LSU pride!

Part of a series: How I gained 10 lbs in NOLA.

Got to spend some time in the French Quarters. Here is Sweet Cayenne showing me around.

Cute. Just so cute.

Yes to seafood. Always, yes to seafood. Char-grilled oysters!

Got to try some local cajun grub- Crawfish Etouffee.

Train ride in NOLA.

My first day there, I wrapped up a 15 hour work day. Tired and hungry, a kind local woman brought the team some hot fresh beignets. They were the best! My first beignet experience- A beignet covered with powdered sugar and sweet southern hospitality.

After the 2nd week of indulging in Cajun heaven, I tried to go on a cleanse, but lasted only a meal.
Here are some yummy fresh juices from The Big Squeezy in Baton Rouge. My favorite was their homemade almond milk.

Very cool art deco-style Louisiana State building.

I was addicted to these brussel sprouts from the local Whole Foods near my hotel. They knew me by name because I would go there every other night to get this delicious dish. Roasted brussel sprouts with honey and siracha.

Really cute cafe I found in the corner of NOLA. Satsuma Cafe was a gem.

Introduced to chicory coffee, sweet natural beet juice, and a fresh croissant sandwich in the heart of NOLA. 

Tried a local bayou brew. Delish.

One thing I did not try was alligator BBQ. This was taken in Natchitoches Parish by a colleague's cousin after the floods. She saw an alligator on her porch, called the cops. The cops restrained the alligator and WALA.. swamp BBQ time.

loved the colorful houses.

LSU has a real tiger habitat next to their stadium. Isnt that crazy?! This is Mike, the Tiger.

-mai

Mishka commentary:
So happy mai is home! She was gone for a month and I missed her so much!

Here is a video of me seeing Mai for the first time in a month. I thought she ressurercted from the dead!

9 out of 10 People Love Chocolate. The Tenth Person Always Lies- Chocolate Lava Cake

There are over 319 million people that live in the USA.
Half of that population, over 159 million Americans, consume over 50% of the worlds chocolate.

Isn't that crazy?!

I don't know anyone that doesn't like chocolate except ......me.

Weird? Yup. Believe it or not, I was never ever a chocolate fan. 

As an elementary student, did you ever wait in the lunch line, hoping to be handed a carton of chocolate milk instead of regular milk?

I don't know about your elementary school, but I remember at my school, working the milk line was one of the best jobs during cafeteria duty. Before anyone could pass through the lunch line, I hid all the chocolate milk cartons to the side, and saved them for my favorite people. I was in charge of passing out the milk, so I was able to save them and hand out my precious stash to all my favorite people (i.e. my friends, my friends' crushes, my elementary crush, my favorite teachers, etc.) when they passed by. It was the most powerful thing for a little elementary school kid.

I never understood why everyone loved chocolate milk. 

Growing up, whenever my mom took my brother and I to the grocery store, we always ended up fighting about which ice cream flavor to get. My mom would only buy one carton of ice cream so my brother and I usually spent the entire time in the ice cream aisle arguing with each other. My brother was usually the chocolate advocate, while I defended vanilla relentlessly. Our stubborn-ness and unwillingness to compromise usually led to my mom buying us a totally random flavor, like artificially flavored cherry popsicles. 

I never understood why my brother loved chocolate ice cream. 

Well...now that I am 30 years old, I think I am beginning to understand the hype around chocolate.

It's like brussel sprouts or taking bathes. 

You start hating it as a kid, and then when you finally reach adulthood, you slowly begin to realize that brussel sprouts aren't so bad after all or taking bathes is actually a relaxing wonderful thing.

My fiance recently made these amazing chocolate lava cakes. He got the recipe from The New York Times. It only requires a few simple ingredients- butter, chocolate, eggs, sugar, and flour. 

He whipped it up in less than 30 min and it was amazing. He served the warm gooey cake with Talenti tahitian vanilla gelato (my favorite!).

Try it sometime. If a chocolate novice, like myself, enjoyed it... then you would probably LOVE it because let's face it... unless you had childhood experiences like me, you are most likely in that group of Americans that consume over 50% of the worlds chocolate.

-mai

chocolate lava cake with tahitian vanilla gelato.

mishka dressed as a chocolate lava cake. he clearly doesnt enjoy this.

mishka commentary

chocolate is bad for me, so I couldnt try this recipe but it looks yummy.
I dont know why Mai thinks she can dress me up like a chocolate cake.

Hawaiian Soul Food on a Snowy DC Day

I woke up today, looked out my window in shock.

I didn't expect to see a sheet of white outside my window. Fluffy snowflakes fell from the sky consistently throughout the day. The snow just kept piling on cars and sidewalks. Another snowy day in DC- This time conveniently on a federal holiday so we weren't deeply affected by the storm.

Today was the day to take out the Staub.

For years, T and I always wanted a Staub (yes, Team Staub! Not Team Le Creuset!).
It was always on our lists- Our Christmas list, our Birthday list, our "when-we-get-married-and-start-a-registry" list, our "kid's-birthday-present" list.
Every year, we telepathically communicated to Santa for a Staub pot. Whenever something lucky happened like getting an auspicious note from a fortune cookie, we bought lottery tickets in hopes of winning a million dollars so we could spend a small fraction on a Staub pot.

Well, well. When preparation meets opportunity, what happens? SUCCESS!
The universe aligned with us a few months ago.

While window shopping at our favorite cookware store, we spotted a Staub on sale! It was hidden under boxes like buried treasure. We immediately took the box and headed to the register without any hesitation.

Meet Amelie, our Staub. Isn't she a beauty? (...yes, we named it Amelie cause Staub is French).

With the help from Amelie, I decided to turn this snowy DC day into a warm Hawaiian paradise.
I decided to make Kalua pork with cabbage today.

Kalua pork is a Hawaiian dish that traditionally requires an imu, an underground oven. Kalua literally means to cook in an underground oven. The most iconic illustration of a Kalua pig is a whole roasted pig served at a luau, feast.

I spent the entire day creating a luau spread. Other than Kalua pig with cabbage, I made lomi lomi salmon, mac salad, and steamed rice.

Back home in Hawaii, you can get a plate of these dishes anywhere. Ah the local plate lunch. I miss it so much.

We invited my FPIL (future parents in law) and HOLY SHMOKES... (I dont want to toot our horn, but...) everything was super duper delicious! Taste of home sweet home!

From top to clockwise- Steamed rice, cabbage with Kalua pork, mac salad, lomi lomi salmon.

Amelie, I love you! You are a miracle worker! She turned a chunk of pork butt into delicious luau heaven! Amelie, thanks for bringing the warmth of Hawaii to snowy DC (*literally... because cooking the pork for 5 hours in the oven really warmed our cozy little apartment)!

Go get a dutch oven (....on sale) and try to create your own luau spread! :)

Kalua Pork with Cabbage

Ingredients:
4 lb. pork butt
coarse salt (Hawaiian salt would be most authentic but kosher salt works just fine)
orange juice

Preheat oven to 300 degrees. Slice top and bottom of pork butt in a checkered pattern (quarter inch deep). Rub coarse salt all around the pork butt. Place pork into dutch oven with fatty side up. Splash some orange juice in dutch oven. Cover with lid and bake for approximately 4 hours.
Within last hour, add big slices of cabbage. Cook for a hour (or until fork tender).

Lomi Lomi Salmon

Ingredients:
yellow onion
green onion
smoked salmon (we used wild caught sock eye)
salt
tomatoes

Finely dice onion, green onions, smoked salmon, and tomatoes. Combine in bowl and mix. Salt to taste. Refrigerate before serving.

Local Mac Salad

Ingredients:
elbow macaroni
mayonaise
carrot
onion
paprika
salt and pepper

Boil macaroni and cook till al dente. Drain and run cold water on macaroni. Grate onion and carrot. Combine macaroni and carrot/onion in a bowl. Add mayo. Season with salt, pepper, and paprika.

-mai

Mishka commentary

The entire apartment smelled and felt like Hawaii. I wanted to take out my Aloha shirt and just hula all day long.