Do Knights & Lords Eat Dumplings?

Yesterday was a day that Todd had been waiting for for a long time. Like, more than a year... maybe two? It was the premiere of HBO's new series, "Game of Thrones". It is based on the book series "Song of Ice and Fire" by George R. R. Martin, with the first book being "Game of Thrones". It is medieval fantasy with lots of political intrigue. Todd has read all four of the books so far. He even re-read "Game of Thrones" this past month, in preparation for the series starting on HBO. The fifth book comes out this July and he can't wait!

We invited Roby and Dejah to come over for dinner before the show, and to watch the show. Dejah brought frozen dumplings from 99 Ranch Market, along with a bamboo steamer.


I had never seen a bamboo steamer in action before! I know, totally unfit to be Chinese! :| The dumplings were placed onto some paper towels inside the steamer.


And steamed on top of a boiling pot of water for 15 minutes.


Noodle watched with intrigue.

Todd put this perch up on the window for him and he LOVES it! Sometimes he'll stay there for hours and not leave, LOL.

The dumplings on the table, after the steaming.


I ate them with my special sauce mixture of rice vinegar, soy sauce, sriracha, and sambal oelek.


After the dumplings, Todd made one of my favorite dishes, Seoul Chicken.

We ate that up with enthusiasm pretty fast!

For dessert, Todd made some pumpkin pie milkshakes using a recipe from Our Best Bites that we had been wanting to try since December!


Some very serious pumpkin pie milkshake eaters.


After dinner, we started watching "Game of Thrones". Oh the intrigue!


And the gore! Three beheadings before the credits even start rolling.


We really enjoyed the show. Todd is super-excited to see all 10 episodes this season. Just a word of caution... if you're thinking of watching this, make sure the kids are out of the room. There's a reason the show is on HBO. There's a lot of violence and adult themes. Same with the books.

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Soup Club: Exchange #2

I've mentioned on this blog before that Todd is the founding member of a Soup Club. The club consists of Todd and five other women, who are also my friends. He had read about meal exchange clubs, but disliked casseroles. So I suggested that maybe the club can specialize in soups. Everyone makes 5 servings of soup once a month and give it to the other five people. You would leave the soup club exchange with 5 frozen dinner-sized soups and eat it over the next couple of weeks. He had blogged about the first soup club meeting last month.

On Sunday we had our second soup club exchange. This time, I thought, hmm... what can I contribute? So I made Todd some labels for his soup containers.

Some of the ladies said maybe next time I can make everyone some labels, as long as they give me their soup info beforehand!

Everyone getting their soups out.


Lots and lots of soups to exchange!

Todd even researched into the best containers and purchased it for everyone to use (they paid him back). That way everyone has the same containers and you just wash them after you eat the soups and then use it to put your next batch in for the exchange. Todd is brilliant!

Anne, Dejah, and Jennifer.


Todd and Meera, and Helen, Anne's grandmother.


Cassandra wasn't there because her husband Pete was running the La Jolla Half Marathon yesterday morning. BUT she cooked her soup ahead of time and Todd got them from her, since they live close to us.

Another successful Soup Club exchange! Tonight we had Cassandra's "Sara Snow's Spicy Tortilla Soup" and it was yummo! :)

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Faith, Hope, and Love

And the greatest of these is Love.

I cannot express the joy I felt to see our friend Mike marry Jen yesterday in a beautiful outdoor wedding on a gorgeously sunny day.



The wedding and their testimony made me fill with joy and faith, that God knows us in the deepest of our hearts and has the best plans for us. You see, our friend Mike is the one who lost his wife Barbara to breast cancer two years ago. My friend Barbara. Mike was introduced to Jen about a year ago, after Jen's brother was playing board games at Mike's house one night and Mike told him that he was ready to start dating. The story is bigger than that. The story is a testament to God's words and His promises to us. This was the Bible verse on Mike & Jen's wedding invitation:

Now to Him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that works in us, to Him be the glory in the church by Christ Jesus to all generations, forever and ever. Amen. ~Ephesians 3:20-21

I don't know Jen very well. But yesterday I found out she's a cancer survivor. When I found that out, it blew my mind. God's awesome love for us and His plans for us, despite tragedy and struggles, almost made me cry tears of joy.

Mike's three kids were part of the ceremony.






Mike and Jen pronounced husband and wife.




At the reception, we got to sit with our old home fellowship Bible study friends Steve and Jennifer


And AJ and Meera






The first dance


We got to have a home fellowship reunion! The guys.


The girls. Denice said that the last time we all got together was at Barbara's funeral. So glad this occasion is different!


A photo with the bride and groom.


Attending the wedding made me realize how much I've missed my Bible study friends from yesteryear, and that Todd and I should find a new group to fellowship with. I really miss it.  Congratulations to Mike and Jen, we're so happy for them!

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Thursday Night Music Club

Last night was like Friday night for Todd and I, since we're taking today off. Funny how you feel less tired after a full work day, when you know you don't have to go to work the next day. :)

So, Todd and I drove down to North Park for dinner. We went to Urban Solace, one of our favorites for modern comfort food. We sat at the bar, and this was our view. So funny! Oh Ron Burgundy.


Todd got hanger steak, while I got grilled cheese sandwich and tomato soup.


I think I would have liked the grilled sandwich more if it didn't have blue cheese. I didn't read the menu description closely enough. I dislike blue cheese!

I felt all moldy! Ew!

One of the reasons we ate down at Urban Solace in North Park was because it's a couple of blocks walking distance to Claire De Lune, where Todd's friend Lindsey Yung was playing and singing. We hadn't been to Claire De Lune in years!

Claire De Lune is a really cool coffee lounge. It has two-story tall ceilings and velvet couches, a loft, and a stage for music.

The huge blackboard menu.


Cool local art.


Loft seating.


Todd found Lindsey!


Todd took several photos of Lindsey performing. Unfortunately, most were blurry. This was probably the best one.


I guess the lesson learned is that when shooting without flash in low lighting and zooming, we need to have steadier hands or a tripod. :(

After Claire De Lune, we headed to Lestat's to see Todd's other musician friend Jane Lui play. To our surprise, there already was a really long line of people waiting to get into the show. We couldn't find parking and the line was getting longer by the minute. We've been to Lestat's often, so we know there's no way that many people can fit in there, so we regretfully decided to give up and go home. All was not lost though. We had a really awesome evening together, eating out and listening to local music. It was a great Thursday night.

Today we are off work and going on a sea adventure. I will be blogging about it next Wednesday for New 52. :)

Oh, I almost forgot!  I made myself a Listgirl Designs blinkie.  It's on the right sidebar of my blog --->   You can grab it if you want to sport it on your blog or in the forums.  Just right click on it and save it to your computer.  Then upload it to somewhere like photobucket.com, get the link from there, and you're good to go!  :)

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New 52 | Week 15: Cooking Scallops

I love to eat sea scallops, especially the fried scallop sandwich at Point Loma Seafoods. But I've never cooked scallops at home. Last week Todd bought me some frozen scallops from Costco. He's such a sweetie. He doesn't eat scallops himself, but bought them for me!

So he found me a recipe from Cooking Light: Pan-Seared Scallops with Bacon and Spinach. Yum! Bacon and scallops? Yes please!

In order for the scallops to sear well, they need to be patted dry with paper-towels. After drying them, I put some sea salt and fresh-cracked black pepper on them.


I cooked the bacon in the iron skillet first. Then I removed them onto a paper towel. Then I seared the scallops with the bacon grease.


I cooked them two and a half minutes on one side, then turned them over and salted and peppered them a little more. Wow, they looked so yummy!


After the scallops were seared and removed from the pan, I put some chopped onions and garlic in the pan. After those cooked, I put some spinach in and turned off the heat.  Then I crumbled the bacon and sprinkled them on top of the spinach.

This was my dinner. I loved every bite! :)



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About This Project

New52 is a project started by Peppermint and I to encourage each other and others around us to try something new every week in 2011. The "new" each week doesn't have to be something big. It could be something as simple as ordering a new dish instead of old standbys at your favorite restaurant. It's simply opening your heart up to NEW possibilities.

Don't worry if you're late getting started on joining in. It's totally OK if you miss a week here or there. We encourage everyone to keep an open mind about trying something new. This is a life project, and a photography/blog and even scrap challenge if you wish. If you participate this week, please leave a link to your blog post in the link list below. You can also post images to our New 52 Flickr Group! We would love to see what you were inspired to do.  

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