lavender's blue: food

Showing posts with label food. Show all posts

DIY Blue Ombre Layer Cake

>> Friday, March 23, 2012 – food, fun

A few pictures from the day when I baked Dean's cake.

P.S. I used cake mix + blue food dye. :)

Green Eggs and Ham

>> Saturday, March 17, 2012 – food, fun

Say!

I like green eggs and ham!

I do!! I like them, Sam-I-am!

And I would eat them in a boat!
And I would eat them with a goat...
And I will eat them in the rain.
And in the dark. And on a train.
And in a car. And in a tree.
They are so good so good you see!

So I will eat them in a box.

And I will eat them with a fox.

And I will eat them in a house.

And I will eat them with a mouse.

And I will eat them here and there.

Say! I will eat them ANYWHERE!

I do so like
green eggs and ham!
Thank you!
Thank you,
Sam-I-am

Happy St. Patrick's Day! :)

Cup Noodles Redesigned

>> Friday, October 28, 2011 – design, food, school

We all have memories of eating Cup Noodles - late nights in college, lunches on the go....midnight snacks at camp. My grandma even packs a few with her to eat on the airplane when she's traveling long distances. It's no question that Cup Noodles are a super quick and cheap option for a meal. But what if they were also healthy and packaged in a way that was environmentally responsible too?

These were just some of the questions that I tried to address in my package design project for one of my classes. The redesigned Cup Noodles features environmentally friendly ecotainer cups that are 100% recyclable and the outer packaging is made entirely from post-consumer waste. The actual noodles themselves are manufactured with an air-drying process to dehydrate the noodles, rather than deep-frying them in oil to flash-dry them. They are also made with all natural, organic ingredients. The new Cup Noodles is a product that is entirely sustainable - for you, and for the earth.
P.S. I used my handy-dandy Silhouette SD to cut out those animal shapes! I felt justified knowing that I could use my Silhouette for "real" projects and not just crafts...haha.

Birthday Celebrations

>> Wednesday, March 30, 2011 – California, family, food

We celebrated my birthday this weekend, and Dean planned all sorts of fun goodies and surprises for me! I'm a lucky girl.

Call us dorky, but one of our favorite radio programs to listen to on NPR is "Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me," the Oddly Informative News Quiz! They have a portion called the Listener Limerick Challenge where listeners have to complete a limerick about a current event/news tidbit by filling in the last word. Anyway, Dean knows that I love NPR and limericks, so he decided to create a series of limericks for me to solve for my birthday - each leading to a present!

Look how nicely wrapped the gifts are. He even used my twine and followed my present-wrapping tutorial to wrap the movie. :)

I told Dean not to get me a big present this year because I got an iPhone recently (which I adore, btw), but he picked out a few small gifts for me that he knew I'd like. Okay, maybe he had some help from my Amazon wishlist...

My favorite gift was the custom DIY stamp kit!! Isn't this the coolest thing ever??? It comes with two font sizes and two wooden-handled stamps, so you can create customized messages, notes, address, gift tags...even limericks. :)

My birthday festivities started out on Saturday with lunch at Bay Cities Italian Deli, where we tried their infamous Godmother sandwich. It was chock-full of tasty Italian deli meats, cheeses, and lathered with spread and some veggies. We also got some of their hot mac 'n cheese, a loaf of crusty bread, and cute, single-serving nutella packs. The store was really busy that day, so we didn't get to explore much, but I do hope to go back and explore more soon.

Our next stop was the Eames House, the home of my favorite American designers, Charles and Ray Eames. I've admired this house on the pages of textbooks and magazines, but it was another experience altogether to see and experience it in person. I'll share more photos and thoughts in another post about the Eames House.

I happened to read somewhere that Takami Sushi was donating 100% of its profits to the Red Cross Japan Relief Fund, so we decided to check out this ultra-hip sushi restaurant located on the 21st floor of the Wilshire building downtown.

The view from the restaurant was pretty amazing. They had this really neat indoor/outdoor wrap-around patio area that offered a really great view of downtown LA. It felt like you were sitting inside a building, but you could definitely hear/smell/feel the air outside.

The food was okay, not extraordinary, but we only had food from the lounge menu for happy hour. I think the best part was just the environment and the view (and my lychee saketini). Admittedly, though, we felt a bit out of place amongst all the hip and glamorous Angelinos there.

Afterward, we stopped by the LACMA to check out artist Chris Burden's Urban Light exhibit. Burden apparently collected the 202 old city street lamps over a period of six or seven years and restored them to create this installation, meant to create a connection between the LACMA and the Broad Museum of Contemporary Art next door, as well as to passersby and the community.

And our last stop of the night was at Doughboys, because what's a birthday without cake?

Thanks, D., for a sweet and memorable day, and thanks to all my family and friends for all the birthday wishes!

Fondant Recipe

>> Wednesday, March 2, 2011 – food

Some of you were asking for the fondant recipe, so I thought I'd share! The recipe I used was passed on to me from my friend Bri, who got it from Steph (you might remember the cake she made for Aletheia & Josiah's wedding here). I think it makes enough fondant to cover a large cake? I didn't keep track because I made so much...

Fondant Recipe

1 10-oz bag marshmallows

1-2 tbls. water

1-2 tbls. white crisco (not butter/yellow colored)

2+ cups powdered sugar

1.Melt marshmallows in microwave with the water. Heat using 30 second intervals. Usually 2-3 times works for me. Stir between heating with a spatula covered in Crisco to prevent sticking.

2. Add food coloring* to melted marshmallows at this point, or just leave white.

3. Sift powdered sugar into marshmallows, and mix till it forms a dough. Add more or less powdered sugar depending on the consistency desired (don't add too much, or it'll dry it out, but it needs to be thick enough to knead like a dough). Knead on a surface lightly dusted in powdered sugar once it acquires a dough-like consistency. Add Crisco as desired to prevent hands from sticking to it or to soften it back up.

*I used Wilton gel food coloring that I got from Michaels. Apparently, the regular liquid food coloring changes the consistency of the fondant!

Happy Birthday, Deanie!

>> Tuesday, March 1, 2011 – family, food, fun

Recently, I've been working with clay a lot with my kids at school. We've been creating cute, miniature animals and pea-sized hamburgers and ice cream cones. I've discovered that anything is cute when it's 1/10th its original size! I've fallen so in love with the medium that when my husband's birthday rolled around, I decided I wanted to bake and decorate him a cake using fondant (okay, clay/fondant, not exactly the same thing, but you get where my inspiration was from).

I tossed around a few different ideas (Phx. Suns? a basketball court? an Xbox?) and finally settled on a Super Mario Brothers-inspired cake! I might have been swayed by the bright, fun colors that the Super Mario Bros. theme offered...

Anyway, after a full weekend (read: 15+ hrs.) of baking/mixing/kneading/drawing/cutting, I want to share with you the final product! It's not perfect, but overall I'm pleased with the result, given this is my first time working with fondant...or making a three-layered cake (German chocolate, lemon, and red velvet!)

Happy Birthday, Deanie! Hope you liked your cake. :)

Thanks, Bri/Steph for the fondant recipe!

Merry Christmas!

>> Saturday, December 25, 2010 – family, food

Merry Christmas to you! I am spending Christmas with Dean's family in Arizona this year. I won't be able to see my family for the holidays this year, but I am grateful for Dean's family in AZ and that they are only a short car-ride away.

As part of our Christmas Day festivities, I made a simple Christmas brunch this morning. I made this scrumptious french toast from a recipe that my sister passed along to me (and replaced strawberries with blueberries), this winter fruit salad, and bacon.

We've been lounging around all day (read: Dean's watching basketball while I'm on my computer and in the kitchen cooking) and waiting eagerly for Jay to get home so we can open presents!

Instead of stockings this year, I made Christmas baggies for Dean and I. I fell in love with the look of vintage doilies on linen when I saw them over here and just had to incorporate them into our gifts. :) And, they're usable all year round!

After presents, we'll be going over to Dean's uncle's house where the whole Thongkham/Vongsachang family will be gathered for (vegetarian) hotpot. Honestly, the idea of vegetarian hotpot does not sound super appealing to me, but I'm hoping that I will be proven wrong.

So on behalf of our little Thongkham family, we wish you a very Merry Christmas filled with family, delicious food, and above all, the peace and joy of our Savior's birth.

(this is our little Christmas tree back home in our studio)

LA Fabric Shopping

>> Monday, December 6, 2010 – California, food, sewing

LA is one of the greatest places to go fabric shopping. We made a trek this past weekend to downtown LA where I stocked up on fabric for all my Christmas projects!

Our first stop was the FIDM Scholarship Store, a store run by and benefiting students at the Fashion Institute of Design & Merchandising. All of merchandise at the store is donated by retailers, and the proceeds go toward funding scholarships for students. They have tons of inexpensive clothing and accessories for sale, but my favorite part of the store is the back area where they sell fabric! Most of the fabrics are only $1/yard! We also picked up some new ties for Dean for only $2/piece. Score!

Our next stop was in the Fashion District at the Michael Levine Loft, where all of the fabric is $2/pound! Ridiculous. They have all sorts of fabrics here - chiffon, lining, jersey, knit, and plenty of fancier fabrics too. The one thing they don't have are cute cotton prints....

But you can find plenty of those at the main Michael Levine store, right across the street! The fabrics here tend to be more like regular retail prices (think: Joann's), but they have a huuuge selection. They do have some good bargains for trim, thread, and sewing notions though.

My loot from the day:

And since we were downtown, we took the opportunity to visit one of our favorite restaurants in LA - Bottega Louie. Eating at this place is always such a treat. Aside from their mouth-watering pizzas and infamous portobello fries, the big stand-out about this place is the impeccable service. From the moment you walk in the door until the moment you leave, you get the feeling that you are well-taken care of. The waiters are attentive, but not smothering; friendly, but not overly chatty, and overall, just super professional and not to mention, good-looking. Seriously, when my brother-in-law visited, he even made the comment that it seemed like one of those places where all the aspiring Hollywood actors work when they're not busy doing auditions.

Speaking of Hollywood actors, we had the pleasant surprise of being seated at Bottega Louie right next to The Office's Oscar Nunez. He was literally sitting two feet away from me on the same booth/bench. His jacket was in my seat and had to be moved for me to get into my booth! It was pretty hilarious. He was so close to us that Dean and I couldn't talk about sitting next to him without him overhearing us, so we spent half of our lunch writing notes to each other and texting back and forth. Haha! Well, our LA experience is now complete - we have seen our first celebrity!

Some photos: