Keeping it Classy

These used to be my measuring spoons.


It's a mishmash of one 1/2 tsp, one 1/8 tsp, one 1 TBSP, and two 1/4 tsp from three different sets. It's a good thing I'm not dumb at math.

I've been meaning to get a decent set of measuring spoons but I'm trying to stay away from plastic and steel sets usually goes for $10, which, I know, doesn't sound like much except... Boring, boring bits, blah blah blah.

Anyway, check out my new set!


Ceramic sets, ain't they classy? Best of all, they were only $5 at Crate and Barrel, of all places.

My sister has always been a fan of that store but I always thought they were full of over priced patio pillows and al fresco dining sets and um... Do they sell anything besides over priced patio stuff? Oh yes, it turns out they do! They also sell kitchen stuff and, surprisingly, their kitchen stuff are reasonably priced.

I also got a measuring glass.


I have measuring cups for dry and a measuring cup for wet, made sense to get a measuring glass for wet. Admittedly, it is not the most useful thing I've bought recently since it only goes in whole tsp and TBSP increments.

Grocery Fail

You kind of have to wonder what they were thinking.


We saw this couple at the Wegman's parking lot trying to fit two large shopping cart worth of groceries into the trunk of a BMW roadster. Those trunks are like yay big:


I don't think it'll fit one large shopping cart full of groceries, let alone two. That car doesn't have back seats; someone's going to have to sit with bags of groceries on their lap and crammed by their feet.. Did they forget what car they drove as they were loading up their cart?

I could hear them arguing and I wanted to pull up next to them to listen in, but that would be rude (whereas, posting their pic on-line obviously isn't...).

Liberty of London for Target

It looks like tea, I know, but it is actually the world's greatest lemonade. What makes it so awesome?

Rosewater.

The writer of Cooking With Trader Joe suggested putting rose water in lemonade and pointed me towards a recipe for rosewater lemonade. I was too lazy to make my own lemonade so I bought one from Trader Joe's. A cap full of rosewater in a cup of lemonade and... Magic! It makes it sweeter and less tart without watering it down or overpowering it with syrupy sugary-ness.

I thought it was the perfect drink to celebrate my Liberty of London purchase from Target.

The first time I went, they did not have any of the housewares out yet. I did, however, get this really cute chemise to wear as a dress.



Well, my original intention was to wear it as a tunic but it was way longer than I had originally thought.


I absolutely love the paisley print.


My mom would be so disappointed if she knew that I did not wear a slip under this dress. As a kid, my mom would not let me wear a thin, unlined dress without a slip.

When I went back a few days later (wearing my "dress") they had some housewares out! They were all super cute and it was tempting to buy it all but, I resisted. Besides, it's hard to shop for a house you don't have yet. It would be cool if some stick around long enough to go on clearance but it's doubtful.

I did pick up a few things.


Maybe I'll use it to frame a picture of my new niece.


Okay, maybe not that picture. Babies are cute but when they're first born they always look a little alien-esq.

Their kitchenware was surprisingly not as plastic as I assumed it would be. A lot of the plates and glasses and such were actually made of glass and ceramic. Very tempting to stock up on plates and glasses but I already have all those. Sure, they don't exactly match but matching's overrated.

I wanted to get something I need but don't already own, like a serving tray. Actually, I already own one but the one I have is a boring, white, plastic one I bought from Ikea for like $2.


I also got a fabric covered magazine tray.


I bought it to hold all my favorite cookbooks, recipe notebooks, and cooking magazines.

Needless to say, I am a big fan of the line.

Sea Salts Rock

This is Kosher salt.


Please excuse the outside appearance of my sea salt. It sits by the stove so it gets dirty pretty quickly.

What's the difference between "regular" salt (iodized) and Kosher? Well, aside from the size, (Kosher is bigger) iodized salt is just BAM! Salt! That's it. It's one note. Kosher salt is more organic and there's a range, and depth. Does it matter? If you're using salt to add, bring out, or enhance a flavor, then yeah, it matters. The price difference between iodized salt and Kosher salt is really small so why not get Kosher?

This is sea salt.


Or, more specifically,


Fancy pink sea salt for the coast of Australia that someone was very kind enough to send me!

What's the difference between Kosher salt and sea salt? Kosher salt starts off quiet, mellow, unassuming then, BAM! It ends with a salty kick. Sea salt starts off strong then nicely mellows down. If you just want your zucchini fritters to taste more like a zucchini, then yeah, save yourself some money and stick with Kosher. However, when you want things to actually taste salty, then definitely splurge a bit and go with sea salts.

Sea salt will give you that initial salt kick but, being the considerate salt that it is, will quietly leave, allowing the other flavors to come through. This gives you the salt taste without it actually being salty.

Sea salt is perfect for:


Edamame!

I used to waste an incredible amount of salt to get edamames to taste salty. I boiled them in very salty water and salted the crap out of them but, alas, not quite salty enough. The problem is that the pod never really absorbed the salt in the salted water. Well, it might have but you don't actually eat the pods so who knows. If the pods were too try the salt never stuck but if the pods were wet, the salt melted.

Then, I saw an episode of Good Eats and learned that I should dry then toss with oil! The salt sticks but does not melt. Brilliant! Now I just microwave some frozen edamames then quickly spray down with some cooking spray.

Another awesome use of sea salt?


Salted hot chocolate!

Serious Contender

I think I found a condo that I like. The location is perfect; it will shave around 20 minutes from my commute. It's very close to two major roads but still secluded so no high way noise. It's a two level condo on the top floor


that faces a wooded area with a cute little creek so the view is gorgeous.


Good location, good view, and good price, the trifecta of a perfect real estate purchase, right? Well... It's a foreclosed property...

When you walk in, you're like "Hey! This is nice!


What! There's a second floor?! That's so cool, I wasn't expecting that from an apartment!

It has really nice features like chair rails and whatchamacalit picture whatevers:


but then you notice that the previous owners did not give a fuck when moving out so the chair rails are kind of chipped and the walls are covered with scratches, stains, and marks from moving furniture out.


Whatever, no big deal, right? Most new place needs a coat of paint, right?

You walk into the main living area and you're like, whoa!


Bright lights from tall windows, a marble fireplace, high ceilings, big ass crown moldings on top, laminate flooring, all very nice, right?


Little gaps all over the said laminate floor, however, are not so nice.

Oh yeah, and how the fuck am I supposed to fix this?


And what's up with the water damage in the ceiling?


But the balcony that faces into that lovely view is so big, it's practically a room of it's own!


It's right off the kitchen. We can dine al fresco while staring into that lovely landscape.


Too bad that even the balcony needs work.

Oh, but the kitchen! The kitchen is so nice and big and bright!


And it has a giant window that faces out into that lovely view and gets all that light!


Too bad it looks like no one's cleaned that kitchen in over a year.


And the inside of the cabinets are pretty disgusting.


In one of the cabinets I found a dead potato bug and little black things that looked like poppy seeds. I hope that wasn't like vermin droppings. Ewe!

Well, at least it has a gas stove!


The half bath downstairs had an ugly wallpaper. I'm kind of fan of ugly but I am definitely not a fan of wallpaper. Peeling off wallpaper is going to such a pain in the ass.


Well, good thing it's started starting to peel on their own, I guess.

Okay, so the down stair is not that great, maybe upstairs will be better.


Oh good God why?!

The upstairs was more of the same- walls that needs to be repainted, floors that needs to be replaced, and bathrooms that needs to be soaked in bleach. On the plus side, the bedrooms were all pretty decent sizes and both are master suits with walk in closets.

Well, I guess there's a reason why the place was so affordable. I'm torn. There are so many things I love about that place and so many things I hate. Of course, everything I love, I can't really find anywhere else (in my price range, anyway) and everything I hate can be fixed. But, then again, do I want to deal with... THIS!


Of course, carpets can easily be replaced...

I'm just not a fixer upper kind of gal. I'm not too good with the DIY.

I don't know.

Heaven

We live very close to a pretty good outlet mall. Michael loves shopping there, I don't. Virginia only has two seasons, blazing hot summer and really cold winter (with maybe a week or two of spring and fall thrown in for fun) and the it's an outside mall so I'm not a fan. However, the weather has been very nice the past few days, we were bored, and I'm obsessed with Crate and Barrel lately, so we decided to go.

I'm glad we did because...

Oh.
My.
Goodness...


They have a Le Creuset outlet!!!

!!!

Click on the above picture to enlarge. No, really, you'll be glad you did.

Their prices are 20-30% off retail. It's a pretty good deal since Le Creusets usually do not go on sale (or, maybe they do and I never knew about it since my Le Creuset obsession is fairly recent and I don't normally shop at stores that carry them). Sometimes I'll see them at Home Goods or TJ Maxx/Marshalls but that doesn't happen all that often.

Even on sale, they are still pretty expensive and I just can't seem to justify spending that much when you can get enameled cast ironware for much, much cheaper elsewhere. I didn't buy anything but I did spend a lot of time in that store lovingly stroking the Le Creusets and wistfully sighing. One day, one day my kitchen will be filled with pretty, colorful enameled cast ironware, hopefully more Le Creusets.

Balconi Tiramisu

Is it too cheesy to say that you can travel the world (the world!) by touring your grocery store?

Ever since I discovered that I don't hate Indian food I've wanted to expand my palate a bit. Normally, I ignore the international aisle but I decided to give it a go. Wegmans, by the way, has a pretty bad ass international aisle. I wasn't brave enough to try the entree items (canned herring in tomato sauce?!) but desserts? Sure! I decided to try the Balconi Tiramisu.


It doesn't really taste like tiramisu, and the taste didn't exactly blow me away, but its light, fluffy, and definitely better than Little Debbies.

It seems like every other country other than the US has really cool snacks. I guess grass is just greener on the other side. When I lived in Korea, American candies and chocolate were the shit. My grandfather used to bring tons of those stuff when he visited. There was a particular brutal turf war between my apartment's play ground and the one across the street. We had the see saw, they had the swing. One day, I grabbed a bag full of American candy and strutted over to the other side with my best friend. When they threatened to beat us up, I bribed them with candy and my friend and I spent that afternoon on the swing. It was pretty sweet.

Bookmark Clean Out

I still haven't done my taxes yet. I probably should get on that right now... I'm not going to, but I probably should...

While I procrastinate, here are some articles you can read!

Online Gamer Looks for a New Girlfriend- Funny video.

Badass of the Week: Nikola Tesla- My brother and I share the a theory that we will never really have another true genius. In order to be that smart you have to be a little off. Back in the day you sucked it up and tried to pass your kids as normal. In the process you discover he's a scientific genius. Now, you stick your kid in a program where they learn how to wonder around the mall and not touch things while their caretaker finishes up her Christmas shopping.

Homemade Chicken Noodles- Ooh, looks good, looks easy.

Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies- Oatmeal chocolate chip cookies are some of my favorite cookies but it's hard to find. Nothing sucks more than biting into an oatmeal cookie because it has dark blobby things that looks like chocolate, only to realize- EWE!- raisins!!!

How to Use a Semicolon- I'm trying to work on my grammar, trying.


Janelle Monae: Rocking Android in Action- I saw her live last year; she's very good. She's kind of like Star Trek (the first one) meets Outkast.

The 7 Most WTF Post-Fame Celebrity Careers- Oh man, oh man. If I lived in England I would totally get my back fixed by the Clash dude. I bet it's really hard to get an appointment with him.

Kimchi, Bacon, and Shiitake Mushroom Pizza- I have a firm belief that bacon will make anything taste better (except sushi). This pizza though... I don't know. Apparently, kimchi and cheese are a fantastic combination but I don't know if I'm brave enough to try it.

Roast Chicken with Balsamic Bell Pepper- I just got a whole bunch of chicken on sale; I'll have to try this out soon.

Best Cocoa Brownies- I spent over $120 on grocery this week; about half of that was spent on dessert like things. I'm in a sugar coma right now, can't really think of brownies at the moment. However, after sobering up from my sugar binge, I will look into making these.

Books Written for Girls- So cool! Too bad they don't sell any here.

Bill Watterson, Creator of Beloved "Calvin and Hobbes' Comic Strip Looks Back with No Regrets- Oh wow, he looks almost exactly like Calvin's dad.

Cajun Chicken Pasta- I would like to make this but I don't want to buy a special cajun spice. Oh look! I can make my own since I already own those spices. Sweet. I'll have to try this recipe out then.

Korean Vogue- Sleeves aren't traditional, or maybe they're North Koreans (their sleeves are narrower than South Koreans).

"Full House" House on Sale- I thought it would go for more. I bet it looks nothing like the Tanner house inside.

My First Macarons!

Saturday was Macaron day in New York City and 13 shops were giving away free macarons! That must have been awesome.

I celebrated Macaron day by finishing off my box of Trader Joe's macaron.


At $4.99 for a dozen, they were a steal. Well, they're still pricey but cheap for a macarons, I guess. I don't really know how much macarons go for but when Starbucks were selling a box of dozen for $12, bloggers were like "Well, they taste like crap but at least they're cheap."

These were my first macarons and it didn't really live up to they hype. They were still very good but food bloggers talk about macarons like they're little piece of clouds from heaven. I assume Trader Joe's macarons aren't exactly the best representation but are they supposed to be so chewy? It's kind of like under baked cookies. It has a thin, delicate layer of crust on top. It's really soft when you first bite into it but then becomes quite chewy. Surprisingly I liked the vanilla better than the chocolate.

Would I buy it again? Maybe. There's still that novelty factor but, as far as French cookies go, I like madeleines better.

Late Night Snack

I got home late, as usual. I hate being hungry when I'm tired and/or lazy. I want good food, I just don't want to do anything about it. Thankfully, I discovered these:


Mini wontons, aren't they adorable?

Unlike a lot of the pre-made wontons, they do not have any weird, processed, fake meat taste to them. I like to bake them in the toaster oven (crispy-ness without the hassle of oil splatter and fried smell late at night) but they're also a nice way to fancy up soups and ramen.

Speaking of ramen...

Michael recently discovered the wondrous transformational magic of egg + cheap ramen. He calls it egg drop soup.

Blankets

This is my quilt.


I got it when I was seven years old and it's just as good as ever. It was a immigrating to the US present from a relative (or some grown up); my sister got the exact same one in blue.

I wonder, did this grown up did some research? It's a very American blanket. Most Korean blankets are either satiny or fuzzy and I don't recall ever seeing any wedding ring patterned blankets. Besides, most Korean bedding are very um... loud.


Okay, not really. I mean, there are lots of tacky Korean blankets out there but I think that can be said for all cultures. We know how to do classy.


If you were wondering, yes, I do think that panther blanket's pretty bad ass. I once saw a person outside the mall loading a black panther velvet painting- with gemstone eyes- into their car.

Off topic: One thing I find odd about Maryland is that they have these million dollar houses just a few miles away from ghetto looking neighborhoods. We're not talking NoVa "ghetto" (houses built before the 90's with a detached/one car/no garages. We're talking like, sketch. Therefore, I guess it should come as no surprise that our mall has Tyson-esq stores like Papyrus, Apple, Jack and Jill, J.Jill, Crate and Barrel, Nordstrom, etc. as well as Manassas-like places like dollar stores, mom pop "club wear" stores, and, apparently, a store that sells velvet paintings.

I should've asked the dude where he got the painting. Maybe that "party" store we have down stairs? I'll have to investigate.

I wouldn't really ever get a giant panther blanket; I'm not a fan of black and brown together. A velvet painting however...

February Credit Card Bill

Whoo hoo!

My credit card bill this February was only $143.82! I think that's the lowest bill in my adult life. Well, the lowest in recent memory, at least. With all the gas and eating out I usually average around $250. I ate out a lot more in Feb. but I also stayed in more (snow!) so I guess I saved a lot of money on gas.

2.08: 19.35 at Shell Oil
2.09: 1.79 at Montg Mall. I can't recall what that charge is for. That's my mall but CC? It's got to be a food court charge but where did I eat that has the initial CC and what did I charge for $1.79?
2.12: 10.35 at My Thai Place
2.16: 22.34 at Shell Oil
2.20: 21.33 at Shell Oil
2.27: 17.16 at Shell Oil. I don't recall spending that much at that place... Hmm, I'm going to have to keep my restaurant recipes now to make sure the wait staff aren't fudging their tip.
3.03: 24.90 at Banjara Indian Cusine
3.4: 26.60 at Shell Oil

Sweet!

Best News Ever

Are you ready for some awesome news?

Really, are you ready for it?

I don't think you're ready for it, but I'll tell you anyway.

Oh my...

Deep breath...

A couple of days ago, I learned that


will be touring with...


!!!

Oh my... oh my... oh my...

So far, the only date announced is a NJ show in August. Even though the tickets will probably be near impossible to get, I do hope they will come to the DC area.

I have yet to see AFI live and though I will prefer my first time to be in a club setting, I will take whatever I can get. They did come to the area around late September with Paramore and Kid Cudi but, for various reason, I didn't even try to go. It was probably for the best, I think the show was canceled due to Davey's busted vocal chords or something.

And, since we're talking about AFI...

A few days ago I met a customer who is friends with


which was amazing since Tiger Army is one of my favorite bands of all time. She told me that Nick 13 is in studio recording a country album. I can totally see that and it would be totally amazing.