Eat your ice-cream, drink your cake!

We are banana people. We love bananas. Every trip to the grocer's would not be without us paying a visit to the banana aisle. It's a must-do, almost like a ritual - regardless of whether we still have any bananas at home - not much thoughts into what we'd be doing with all the unfinished bananas - we simply adore this long, yellow and cheap (less than a buck a pound) fruit! As of last weekend, we had about almost week-old bananas lying on the kitchen island, with a not-so-glorious-yellow hue anymore. So what did we do when we went grocery-shopping during the weekend? We bought another bunch of 8 bananas!
"I'll make you this grilled bananas dessert I made for the guys.....you'll love it!", D said to me at the banana aisle.
"But we still have leftover bananas at home!", I said.
"Well, you need firmer ones for the grill.....just buy it. I'll make it for after-lunch dessert today. I promise you, you'll love the grilled banana dessert!".
It's already mid-week, we did the grilled lunch on Sunday but I've yet to taste his grilled dessert!
Enter this lots-of-ways banana cake. I don't understand why but I have tons of cookbooks yet I only gravitate towards this for my recent bakes. I love experimenting and trying out new recipes, perhaps it was simply poor execution on my part but most of the other recipes I've tried, especially those down-to-earth, comfort-bake types came out short, be it in tastes, texture or pure expectations.

Read more...

Week-in-the-Life Project: Final Day.

9:00 am Breakfast with D


9:30 am Started TWD's weekly bake. Excellent cookies

10:30 am Since D was still having severe sinus allergies, we decided to stay home instead. I spent a good hour or so taking shots of my bakes

for FWB

Read more...

TWD: Chockablock Cookies

I love recipes that call for loads of nuts, fruits and chocolate, even more so when the recipe is entirely suitable for a myriad of substitutes and variations. This ravishing cookie - with its colorful bits of fruits, nuts and the jewel of it all: embedded chunks of gooey chocolate  - is just what its moniker implies. Chock full of goodness!

Read more...

Week-in-the-Life Project: Day 6

The weekend's my favorite time of the week.....well, I guess it's just about everyone's favorite too. When I was working and commuting long hours, the weekend was more like a refuge.....my time of solitude where I could gain back some sanity in life, a time to take a breather before the crazy work week started all over again. Nowadays, weekends are still precious, but even more so because of the quality time I get to spend with D. Instead of running errands, paying bills, groceries or catching up on laundry (and most importantly, sleep), our weekends these days are filled with exciting outings like photoshoots, meeting up with friends, photoshoots, checking out new places to dine, photoshoots, checking out new photography gear for D, photoshoots.......you get the picture. So I was absolutely relieved when all D wanted to do today was to get some DVDs from the store! After our breakfast, we headed to his all-time favorite:

10:00 am at Best Buy

Read more...

Week-in-the-Life Project: Day 5

TGIF!

8:00 Morning drive to zumba class

a foggy Friday morning........

road visibility of....what do you reckon......100 ft?

Read more...

Week-in-the-Life Project: Day 4

8:00 am Morning coffee, emails and news.

8:30 am Review schedule for the day and realized - shucks! I've got couple bakes for the baking group that I"ve yet to complete! Plus, we need desserts for the guys' soiree tomorrow! You see, D and his buddies are having their GNO (guys night out) while the wives are having our GNO (girls night out)...or should it be LNO? Anyways, that means it's going to be nothing but bake, bake, bake today. Not a bad thing, really

12:00 pm Have I finished my bakes? No. Have I even started on one? Nope. As of noon, I was still updating yesterday's happenings. *sigh*

By 6:00 pm

Jam thumbprints for Barefoot Bloggers

another batch of financiers for my experiment (and dessert for D's GNO tomorrow)

Hubby brought me flowers today! Alright, nevermind that these were actually from our front yard. I fell in love with Mr Lincoln the first time I smelled its wonderful scent in the nursery; reminds me of the Rose parfum de Paris.

iPhone photo: Mr Lincoln roses

Another uneventful Thursday. The thrill of this project is starting to ware off....less and less photos taken, but then again, I've been either baking or working on the laptop most part of the day, tasks which are not so convenient to take snapshots of....yes, I'm too lazy to set up the tripod! 

Read more...

Jam Thumbprint Cookies

This bake marks my debut as a Barefoot Blogger member, something that became official this month although I only found out about it late in the game. I started following Barefoot Contessa on FoodNetwork channel about 8 years ago and have been an avid fan of Ina Garten since then. Ina's the type of neighbor you'd like to have - sweet, personable, makes some of the most scrumptious food ever and you must just love her generosity with butter! My very first Ina recipe was beef bourguignon - sorry Julia; I learnt to do it Ina's way first and that is still my favorite beef bourguignon recipe till today. I've been making Ina's jam thumbprints for Christmas many years now. I still remember the episode where she baked a batch of raspberry and apricot jam thumbprints, wrap them in clear cellophane then adorn each pouch with ribbons as gifts for her friends. I want to be Ina's friend or move next door to her too!

Read more...

Week-in-the-Life Project: Day 3

Interviewer: Day 3 of the Project. So how is it going?

Me: So far not bad. Getting the hang of  it - noting down details of things that caught my interest and being aware of how I spend time everyday - not that I'm saying every single minute is well-spent. (laughs)

Interviewer: It's been a rather slow week for you. Is it like this everyday?

Read more...

Week-in-the-Life Project: Day 2

A reader commented that this project is quite like reality blogging. Reality blogging. I like that! So let's use that from now on out. Thanks Lazaro! By the way, Lazaro has a cool blog - check it out!

Jen's reality Tuesday: just another typical day of class, errands, more errands and none of the dramatic episodes that everyone craves for in reality TV. It's been a wet, rainy day. In fact, there was even a hailstorm as I drove home in the afternoon; in case you're wondering,  the hails were the size of peas so no, I'm not injured, no dents on my car - all's well, thank you very much!

Read more...

Week-in-the-Life Project: Day 1

Does anyone still keep journals? I do. I still have journals way back from my teenage years.  By the way, where I come from, they're called diaries.  I've always been journaling for the most part of my life. I find much clarity in being able to write down everything that has taken place. In fact, growing up, it was my ritual to document every single day in my diary during our annual year-end school holidays: events, incidences, how I felt, what I did, where I went, what I bought or saw or ate. I'm not entirely sure why I loved doing that. Perhaps it was to prepare just in case anyone ever asked me years later what I did on, say, 18th December 1988, I'd be able to thumb through my little white diary with the cutest bright red cherry motifs and have the exact answer at my fingertips! Well, so far, no one has asked me in the last couple decades. But I'm still a fan of journals although these days, my blog has replaced my hardcover diary. When I came across this in a blog I've been following, I knew I simply had to embark upon the week-in-the-life project. It's a great project: capture everything that takes place in your life for a whole week, as detailed as you can - photos, videos, saved receipts, scribbles on bits and pieces of paper - everything unscripted - the good, the bad and the ugly. What you'll end up with is a week's worth details - details of your life during that single week - documented and memorialized for a lifetime.  This was a sneak peek but here goes my manic Monday.

Monday, 19th April

8:00 am  Checked emails, news and finished b'fast, which included an experiment that I'd have to divulge at a later time. Planned out the week's schedule

iPhone photo: finishing up b'fast - an experimental project in progress

Read more...

Springing into Spring

A gorgeous day of sunshine and clear blue skies in the Bay Area! Le Printemps. My favorite season of the year! We made an impromptu trip to the City and spent some time at the SF Botanical Gardens. I've made a short photo montage to remind myself how blessed we are to be living here.....the first installment of my "Week in the Life" project....more on that next week, but for now, enjoy!

Springing into Spring: A gorgeous day at San Francisco Botanical Gardens 4/17/10 from Jencrafted on Vimeo.

Read more...

An Afterthought

Fail to plan, plan to fail. You must've heard of this a thousand times before. But do you believe it? I'm still on the fence.  There were many times when I had detailed, well thought-out plans, including backup plans (and backups for the backup plans) but the outcome of those plans were

Read more...

TWD: Swedish Farewell Cake

I can't get over the strange coincidence of how this week's pick  - Swedish Visiting Cake by Nancy of The Dogs Eat the Crumbs happens to fall so close to Hakan's (my husband's Swedish colleague) farewell. Hakan's assignment in Northern California ends this week and he will be heading back to Sweden on Friday. I didn't have the chance to welcome them with a Swedish Visiting cake, so with lots of warmth, best wishes and much blessings, this is my Swedish Farewell Cake for Hakan, his lovely wife AnnaLianna and beautiful daughter Christine

Read more...

Sablés au thé vért Matcha

It seems like everyone who is into serious pastry baking has some form of Matcha (green tea) bakes in their repertoire, especially those French pastry fanatics. I know of a person who's undergoing

Read more...

Comfort in a bowl: Vegetarian Chorizo Stoup

Vegetarian chorizo. Did you do a double-take? Chorizo? The Spanish pork sausage? But it's supposed to be a vegetarian dish? How can that be?

Read more...

TWD: Mocha-Walnut Marbled Bundt

I'm extremely pleased with this bake even before baking it! How's that possible? Because this week's pick by Erin of When in Doubt.... Leave it at 350 (pages 180-181 of the book) gave me

Read more...

My Encounter with Macarons in Paris

It has been 3 months since our Paris trip. I said I wanted to share more about our trip, didn't I? Well, what can I say? Procrastination life takes over sometimes! At least the post title doesn't read "Our macaron encounter in Paris 3 years ago......"!! Better late than never! (There, I feel so much better now)

Read more...

How to make Tamago (individually-cooked layers of egg)

Tamago - a square block of egg. An oxymoron? I'm not sure but it's just so good and while it's primarily used for sushi, it's simply delicious with any meals - salad, poultry, stir-fried noodles, even dessert! How about snacking on thinly-cut slices of tamago just as you would a layer cake! What's not to like?
Here's a v-clip of my hubby - Mr. Sushi and Mr. Photographer making tamago.

How to Make Tamago from Jencrafted on Vimeo.

Read more...