no fuss bread baking

my fear of proofing yeast, kneading and baking a crusty bread is over thanks to "artisan bread five minutes a day". the boys gave me this book for my birthday and i've made pizza dough, ciabatta bread, pita bread and naan bread with the master boule recipe!

my so called "chocolate & strawberry icecream" scarf

this is my first time knitting with malabrigo yarn and it's absolutely soft. this is a popular scarf pattern called "my so called scarf". the color is sotobosque which reminds me of chocolate & strawberry icecream!

hawaiian style peanut butter blossoms

picked up a couple of bags of macadamia nut kisses on my last visit to hawaii and baked these, oh so yummy!

tumbling blocks blankie

my friend y gave birth to the cutest baby girl this past spring. her room is a “hello kitty” theme in pink, light green, white, aqua and dark brown furniture. i wanted to knit a blankie to coordinate with her room and decided on the tumbling blocks blankie from lion brand yarn. some of my friends called this the “ice cream blankie”.

yummy homemade granola bars

my bff t gave me this cookbook for my birthday last year. this is the first recipe i made from this book and they are delicious! i've also made this as a granola which is especially tasty with soy milk or greek yogurt.

2009 garden

we had quite a bit of rain and frost last year so a lot of our plants didn't make it. hopefully we'll have better luck this year.

sock it 2 me

well as a knitter i have always told myself i would never knit socks. i would rather knit other things if i can easily go to the store and purchase them. as you can see i first knit "a" sock and that was just way too complex for me. i knit "a" sock, not a pair. a friend/lys owner has written a pattern for two socks at one time! now i realize what the craze is about knitting socks, i'm hooked! i'm just beginning the gusset portion of the sock and i already can't wait to knit another pair! i plan to always have a pair of socks on my needles (along with my other wip's). plus they perfectly fit in my tokidoki pouch that i can throw in my purse!

my love affair with vietnamese food

i would like to personally thank my friend jf for introducing me to this wonderful cuisine 10+ years ago. i seriously could eat vietnamese food everyday for the rest of my life, ask my DH. i was very fortunate living in diverse cities and being able to have whatever my palette craved for. the closest vietnamese restaurants is in baton rouge (60 miles) or new orleans (135 miles). everytime we travel a vietnamese restaurant is the first thing i look up. don't get me wrong, i'm very fortunate living here in cajun country with all the mouth-watering cajun cuisine. so the next best thing is making it at home. thank goodness we have a asian market where i can get a lot of my ingredients. i enjoy all the hot, sweet, sour, salty goodness that vietnamese food has to offer. funny how all the dishes look the same but served 3 different ways. reminds me of mexican food: taco, burrito, tostada. basically the same ingredients but served 3 different ways.

it's been a long time coming...since i've been here...

just as long as this picture was taken! i believe my blogging mojo is back...third time's a charm right? this picture was actually taken last week via the great hipstamatic 100 available on iPhone. upload the app now (ok that was a little pushy :0), trust me you'll love this app and you won't be disappointed!