Red Robin

When we were up North Red Robin opened up a couple of months before we left for Houston, TX. We've been meaning to give that place a try because is a new restaurant up there and we've pretty much ate at most of the restaurant there therefore Red Robin would be something new for us to try. Hubby's friend mentioned that we should go together and then catch a movie after that but than that never happened and time was not really on our side because we were busy trying to finish up the house, selling the house, selling the furniture and things we had AND packing. I barely had time or the essentials to cook because we were trying to keep stuff away.

Hubby has had Red Robin several times since we moved down here and he's always impressed by the food. I've always wanted to try this place since last year! So last Saturday hubby asked what I wanted for dinner which I initially planned to make Curry Laksa but then I had Korean Ramen for lunch so I didn't feel like eating Curry Laksa for dinner hence I suggested Red Robin. Hubby half heartily agree to take me there since we did ate out and stuffed our face already the night before and we vowed to eat healthier and not stuff our face when we go out and eat.

I like going to Red Robin. I'm not really a hamburger person but I am a fries person and I knew that they had unlimited fries!! We started with their famous onion rings which was really yummy. I ordered the bbq whisky something burger and hubs ordered the tortilla soup. I was actually full after eating the onion rings and drinking my lemonade. When I food came I took about two small bites of my burger and I didn't eat it anymore because I found the sauce a little too salty for my taste plus I was full. I just attacked the fries and hubby made me drink some of his soup while he ate the burger.

Of course we could have just eaten in McDonalds or Burger King and it would be much cheaper but the environment would be different. I would definitely go back there again.

Happy Birthday Uncle Richie!!!

It is officially Uncle Richie's birthday today but because they were going on vacation we decided to celebrate his birthday earlier. Initially I was told that we were going to go out dinner together on Friday night therefore I quickly whipped out a cake for him but hubby said since we are going together it was difficult to take the cake with us to the restaurant without him finding out. So we thought that we would come home and have dessert BUT we were all TOO STUFFED from dinner to have dessert. So I made some plans to grill out and surprise uncle Richie with a cake on either Saturday or Sunday evening. Uncle Richie called Saturday and told us that they were at the grocery store and see if we wanted to grill out together then they can get the stuff to grill out. I hurriedly agree and we grill out on Saturday night and surprised Uncle Richie with his cake.

Cookies and Cream Cake adapted from Kaitlyn

Ingredients:

For the cake:

1 cups sugar

1 ¾ cups all-purpose flour

¾ cup cocoa powder

1 ½ tsp. baking powder

1 ½ tsp. baking soda

1 tsp. salt

2 eggs

1 cup milk

½ cup vegetable oil

2 tsp. vanilla extract

1 cup boiling water

For the filling:

2 cups heavy cream

1/8 cup confectioners’ sugar

¼ tsp. pure vanilla extract

10 chocolate sandwich cookies, chopped (I used 30 oreos)

For the frosting:

2 sticks of butter, softened

5 cups confectioners’ sugar

1/2 cup milk

2 tsp. vanilla extract

Directions:

To make the cake, preheat the oven to 350°. Grease and flour two 9-inch round baking pans.

Stir together the sugar, flour, cocoa, baking powder, baking soda and salt in a large bowl. Add eggs, milk, oil and vanilla; beat on medium speed for 2 minutes. Stir in boiling water (batter will be thin). Pour batter into prepared pans.

Bake 30-35 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Cool 10 minutes; remove from pans to wire racks. Cool completely.

To make the filling, in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the whisk attachment, combine the heavy cream, confectioners’ sugar and vanilla. Beat on low speed until all sugar is incorporated; increase speed to high and whisk until stiff peaks form. Gently fold in chopped cookie pieces with a rubber spatula.

To make the frosting, mix butter, milk and vanilla until smooth. Stir in 4 cups of sugar and beat until smooth. Keep adding ½ of sugar until frosting is at the right consistency.

To assemble the cake, place one cake layer on a cardboard cake circle. Pipe a ring of the chocolate frosting around the outside edge of the cake. Fill the area inside the ring of frosting with a thick layer of the cookies and cream mixture. Place the second cake layer on top. Frost the sides of the cake layers with chocolate frosting. Pipe a decorative border of the chocolate frosting on top of the cake. Fill the area inside this border with a thick layer of the cookies and cream mixture. Garnish with extra chocolate sandwich cookies and whipped cream if desired.

I skipped the frosting and used the filling to cover the whole cake. The results of the cake was yummylicious. The original recipe requires 2 Cups of Sugar but since we don't like too sweet of the cake I cut it down to 1cup. I figured that since I used much more oreo cookie than stated the sweetness from the oreo cookie will balance the sweetness.

A new journey

I will be starting another blog for another new journey I'll be going through in my life. I hope that everyone will follow, support and guide me in this new journey. Welcome to my new blog.....I will also continue blogging here....

Strawberry/Blueberry Cake

Strawberries season is here. For some reason this year strawberries are really cheap and sweet. It was selling for $1.50 for a punnet so I bought 4 two weeks ago. Bare in mind that I've already bought god know how many punnet before this and have already frozen them. I decided not to freezer the last two punnet that I have sitting in the fridge so I decided to bake a cake with it.

Ingredients
1 3/4 cups flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 cup butter, softened
3/4 cup sugar + 1/4 cup of brown sugar (if you want a sweeter cake)
2 eggs, room temperature
1/2 cup sour cream or yogurt, room temperature
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 1/2-2cups strawberries, fresh & coarsely chopped (do NOT use frozen) or fresh blueberries
3/4 cup walnuts (optional)

Method
Chop strawberries coarsely and sprinkle powder sugar over them.
Combine flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt and cinnamon; set aside.
In small bowl, beat butter until creamy.
Gradually add sugar, beat 1 minute or until light and airy. Add brown sugar. Beat in eggs, one at a time. Beat in sour cream and vanilla.Stir into flour mixture only until dry ingredients are moistened.
Fold in strawberries and nuts.
Pour into a greased 8 x 4 inch loaf pan.
Bake at 350°F for 60 to 65 minutes or until toothpick comes out clean.
Let stand 10 minutes in pan.
Turn out on rack to cool.

The cake is not really beautiful but it taste really good. Uncle Richie took a bite and lurved it. I think I'm going to make more of these because hubby bought more strawberries last weekend and I should use it up before it goes bad.

Left over turkey

Since we had lots of left over turkey from here I had to find ways to used up the turkey. Hubby used the white meat and made sandwiches to take to work for lunch. He's not a big fan of dark meat so I find to find a way to make food with it that he'll eat or I'll end up eating the dark meat myself.

I was trying very hard not to go to the store to buy anything to cook the turkey meat with so I rummage through my fridge and found some left over rice and some cabbage.

I came up with this dish. Kind off like fried rice just that my vegetables was cabbage instead of the normal fried rice vegetables. Since hubby was not eating this dish I cooked it with some of the homemade chili too which reminds me I need to get more dry chili to make more of find another recipe and try it. I am out of my homemade chili already.

The following day I decided to take the rest of the homemade carrot noodles and stir fried it with turkey, green pepper and cabbage.

I started buying cabbage because I know cabbage can be kept in the fridge for a long time. I normally buy my vegetables at the Asian grocery store because I find that they have a wide variety of vegetables and is much fresher since the Asian grocery store is a ways away I try and go there every 2weeks and stock up on vegetables so I have to have vegetables that can be kept for quite some time. Vegetables that I buy that cannot be kept too long I will use it up first and I will only lastly use vegetables like cabbage, bak choy etc.

The following day I decided to make some whole wheat spinach noodles. I bought some frozen spinach and all I had to do was take it out of the freezer. After cooking the noodles it didn't look as appetizing as I anticipated.

Hubby said that it looks like mold *faint* Again I cooked it like how I cooked the carrot noodles.
It still tasted pretty good but I'm sick of cooking noodles with turkey hence I froze the rest of turkey meat until I find something to cook with it. Hubby asked if I could put some coloring in the noodles so that it doesn't look like that *slap head*. I told him that I will make carrot noodles next time but I still have two bags of frozen spinach hence I'm going to be using it and there will be more spinach noodles. Apart from the color it does taste pretty good and is much healthier than normal noodles since is whole wheat and is even vegetarian because I didn't use egg to make this noodle.

6 years dating Anniversary

Saturday was our six years dating anniversary. I cannot believe how time flies and how quickly/slowly this six years has passed. We've had our share of joy and happiness and more to come. We've also had our share of up and down that has made our relationship stronger and wiser.

Since it was our six years dating anniversary hubby and I decided to take a trip to the galleria since we've been there for quite some time. We didn't think that it would be so pack since there is this stink about the recession and everyone is suppose to cut on spending but boy was I wrong. The mall was so pack even LV boutique was packed with people. When we walked in to the store no one even offered to serve us. Well that's fine since we were not sure if we really wanted to spend so much money that day.

Anyway when we got to the galleria hubby was hungry so we decided to find something "light" to eat because I were not that hungry. I asked hubby to decided since I didn't really know what we should eat and since he was the one that was hungry. Since hubby was the one that is suppose to decide where we were going to eat he obviously chose his favorite food - Mexican food of course!


We started our meal with soft drinks and water and then they bought the chips and salsa out.

The chips and the tomato(red) salsa was pretty good. The green salsa which I think is suppose to be guacamole mix was so watery and had no taste in it at all. It tasted horrible hence I didn't even touch it (I normally like to go for the guacamole salsa instead of the tomato salsas). It didn't take the food long to come I think because there was not many people there at that time.
I don't remember what is this call I think is something like enchilada and fajitas mix. It actually tasted pretty good.

The food and price at this place is not bad but I would like to warn about the service. The service here (when we were there) was HORRIBLE. I was so piss with them. First since I didn't order anything they knew I was sharing the dish with hubby they didn't even bother to bring us any plates. All the table had plates for people to put their utensils etc but our table didn't have any and they didn't even bother at all to take us any. Then they didn't really bother to refill our drinks. The people will just walk pass us without even asking us if we wanted anything else. We were out of salsa and chips no one came to asked if we wanted more and if we needed anything. When we needed something we had to call for them which was difficult because they weren't really looking at us and they were just busy chatting with by themselves. The place where we sat and dine was not bad although it didn't look the cleanest but it was alright because I thought they wanted to have the authentic Mexican restaurant feel. When I went in to the rest room I thought I was in the Mexico a part of not so develop town. Let's just keep at there!

In conclusion I doubt I will every go back there. The service is really enough to keep us away to that place.

After we stuffed our little tummies we decided to walk around for a little while to burn some of the food we ate :)

Before we called it good I came home with these goodies. YES another pair of crocs!!!I can fit into these crocs and I absolutely love them but I'm keeping these for mom. I am not going to keep it for myself. I told hubby that is for mom and that's the only reason why I was allow to buy since I already have so many pair of them. Hubby have been looking to get me an organizer for a long time. Initially we thought that we would look at LV's but then since they were so busy we decided to just go Coach instead. I know is already middle of the year but that we didn't think that matters because all we have to do is just change the refills but since is still 2009 I still have 6 months use out of it.

A new phone

So I've been having small problems with my current phone here and there and I've been getting it changed. The last time I got my changed at the beginning of May I still had a weee bit problem with it. The wall paper is not right and I've had so many phones already I know my background is not suppose to be black (ok I'm being really picky here) and for some reason I'm not able to connect to the Internet with that phone too. So I told hubby to call up T-mobile to complain to them because I've had so many problems with this phone and the last time I called to complain and got an exchange they told me if I still had problems with the phone I could get another phone. The problem was the customer service person didn't write that down in the computer so I'm not allowed to get a new phone. Hubby proceeded with the process by talking to the manager the manager finally said that I could get another Blackberry Pearl replacement OR I can get the G1 which Uncle Richie has that and I don't care for it. Hubby wanted to get me the Blackberry Curve 8310 in Red instead but they could not give me that for free.

Anyhow hubby being hubby has always wanted the curve in Red so finally t-mobile and him came into an agreement. We don't have to sign another contract (because we actually just changed our plan) but we could still buy the phone for the upgrade price. Not a bad deal because I think if you don't sign another contract I'll have to pay USD450 for this phone but I think we are getting it for USD250 so we are saving USD200.

We are really happy(so far) with this phone. I've had it less than 24hrs so we'll see how good this bad boy is. Hubby really love his curve and he wants me to get that too PLUS he really wants the red one so i can trade with him soon I guess.

I'm not sure about other men but mine if he wants something price is not an object(not tooo expensive). Hopefully this phone will serve me/us well without giving us much problems.

His Majesty Milo!!

Milo is so difficult sometimes. First he refuses to eat the mash potatoes that's suppose to help his upset tummy. Then I had to give him really plan food so I gave him about a tablespoon of white rice and he refuse to eat them. Since he's only eaten his medication which I have to FORCE it in his throat I decided to boil him an egg. I think he was super hunger because he hasn't eaten anything all day and ate up some of the egg yolk which is fine because the egg yolk has more nutrient anyway. This morning I boiled another egg and gave him 1/3 of the egg and a few grains of dog food. He finished the dog food but he refuse to eat the egg even the yolk. Excuse me apparently the egg is not good enough for him anymore. Just two months ago I had to buy another brand of food because he wasn't eating a lot of the current one that I have at home.

He is really picky with his food where as Stanley is the garbage disposal. I heard that kids are like that too. The first one would be so easy and good but the second one is the total opposite. I knew that Stanley is very simple all he wants to do is play with you and FOOD. Where as I have to always get new food for his majesty because he refuses to eat the food that's offered! Arrgghhhh

A long and agonizing night

It was a very long and agonizing night for both hubby and I. Milo started having diarrhea at night so I gave him some mash potatoes. He would not eat the potatoes so I had to forced feed him. At about 10ish he went into the kitchen and we heard a loud noise after that and thinking he hit the crate but to find out that he explosive diarrhea. Poor baby...we quickly took him out again and all that's coming out is liquid. I quickly went online to see if there is any medication I could give him. We did not have the medication recommended so I had to call Uncle Richie to see if they had some and he managed to rummage one Imodium AD. I forced him that took him out and put him in his crate last night. At about 2am he puked out all the potatoes and after that he would puke a little liquid here and there on average every 2hrs so every time when he did that I had to clean it up. None of us including Stanley didn't get much sleep.

This morning I took him out and he's still purging. I quickly went to the store to buy the recommended medication and gave him some. I'm hoping that it'll help because I feel so bad for the poor little guy. I made some white rice for him because I was told not to feed him any dog food but small amount of rice let's hope that this will help. He didn't want to eat any in the morning and after I got back from the store he ate some and I fed him the medication. I hope that he gets well soon. I don't know why he's always sick but I hope that it will change. I know he's so worn out but he still tries to be the cheerful little puppy. I just pray and hope that the medication will help get better really soon.

Ahhh...to have a life as dogs....

Yesterday night while getting ready for bed hubby asked where he was going to sleep because I was sleeping on my side Milo was on hubby's pillow and Stanley was on the edge of the bed his side and both of them looked KO like they have been hard at work the whole day. So I took my camera and showed hubby this

Me: Ehhh look at your puppies. Cute of not? They slept like this when they were taking their nap. Didn't even move when I went to take the camera to take the pictures. So tired!!
Hubby: They sleep all the time?
Me: Yeahh...Like they don't get to sleep at night and so tired during the day.
Hubby: So lucky! I wish I can sleep like them!
Me: LOL..Different people different life!

I know dogs sleep a lot but then take naps almost all day and during the night they sleep like they have been working so hard I wonder why they are so tired. Never the less they are still our spoiled little baby :)

Turkey

I had a turkey sitting in my freezer and is actually taking up quite a bit of space so last week smarty hubby decided that this weekend we should make the turkey but to forget that we actually have seminars to attend on the weekend. Initially I was going to stay home because the hyper me is going to get bored sitting there but we decided that we all should attend the seminar so on Saturday we all went for the seminar. We didn't attend the Sunday seminar because hubby had work to do so we will just go to the same seminar probably next month hence I stayed home and cooked the turkey. I did not have a special recipe to cook the turkey and I wanted to make something that didn't require a lot of ingredients and preparation time. So from reading different websites I just came up with my own way(I'm assuming someone has already done this) of cooking the turkey.

The night before we took the turkey out of the bag, washed it and put it on a pan then leave it in the fridge overnight to dry out the skin. The next morning I took the turkey out from the refrigerator so that the turkey is at room temperature before putting it in the oven. Then I minced some (a lot) of garlic and mixed it with butter. I inserted the mixture in between the skin and meat at the breast/tight area. After that I rubbed butter all over the skin and sprinkled various spices that I had on the spice right like rosemary, thyme, marjoram, basil and oregano. I think dump a bunch of those spices in the cavity of the turkey. Pour 1cup of broth of water at the bottom of the rack.

I turned on the oven to 450°F and put turkey in the oven (breast side down) hoping it would make the skin crispy for the first 30 minutes. Then I turned the oven down to 325°F and let it cook slowly. Roasting a turkey breast-side down for the first hour will keep the turkey moist. Turn turkey over after first hour to finish cooking.


Thankfully the turkey didn't come out dry. The turkey browned evenly and the skin was crispy too. It tasted really good too. I was so impressed because I didn't have a particular recipe that I could follow a step by step direction and I still managed to make a good turkey :)

I only based the turkey like 2-3 time because I was lazy and we don't want to keep opening the oven door because I read somewhere that we don't want to keep changing the internal temperature of the oven. Basting the turkey will only allow the turkey to have an even color but not really to moisten the turkey so I didn't feel like basting the turkey that many times.

The next thing that I actually made from scratch was the stuffing. Uncle Richie wanted stuffing and I decided to make some for him with the bread that I've been collecting in the freezer that we cannot finish when is fresh.

Ingredients
1 (1 pound) loaf sliced any bread you have
3/4 cup butter or margarine
1 onion, chopped
4 stalks celery, chopped
2 teaspoons poultry seasoning
salt and pepper to taste
11/2 cup chicken broth

Method
Let bread slices air dry for 1 to 2 hours, then cut into cubes or you can put it in the oven so it dries quicker.
In a Dutch oven, melt butter or margarine over medium heat. Cook onion and celery until soft. Season with poultry seasoning, salt, and pepper. Stir in bread cubes until evenly coated. Moisten with chicken broth; mix well.
Chill, and use as a stuffing for turkey, or bake in a buttered casserole dish at 350 degrees F (175 degrees C) for 30 to 40 minutes.

p/s: If baking it as casserole and if you like moist stuffing I suggest using about 2cups of broth, cover the casserole with foil and take the foil out the last 10 minutes so that it browns and crispy on top.

I cannot believe is so easy to make my own stuffing and I could even use up some of the bread I have sitting in the freezer. I normally use the bread to make croutons and it is fresher I'll used it to make french toast for hubby so I'm really happy that I found another way to use those bread ^-^

The rest of the side dish I served with the turkey was homemade mashed potatoes, greenbean casserole, a can of corn and some cranberry jelly. It was a simple yet yummy dinner I might say.

Now I just have to find away to use the left over turkey. Hubby would probably use the breast to make sandwiches for work and I'm not sure what I'm going to do with the rest. Maybe cook it with noodles or fried rice with it. I kept the bones so I can make broth with it too. I actually dug out 4 chicken bones and made a pot of broth to use to make the above recipes. I let my broth to just boil for at least 4 hours and just add some salt and pepper with no additional seasoning. So keeping these bones can come pretty handy I think.

Priceless

Yearly shots/vet bill (not including when he's sick) - $ 200
Heartworm medication - $50/yr
Food - $ 100/yr
Treats - $ 300/yr
Toys - $50/yr
Accessories (clothes, collar,etc) - $100/yr
Toothpaste - $5 a tube (not sure how many he'll need)
Flea medication, shampoo etc - $100/yr
Grooming - $150/yr
Love-FREE

Cost of having ONE dog is about $1050 +/- year (if he is healthy and don't need to go to the vet for other things) and doesn't need anything else. I didn't even add in their neuter fees (one time).
When we first had a dog I didn't think that they would cost us so much. I was told only a few hundred dollars....BUT

I think is all WORTH IT!!They both love me unconditionally (even if I smack them for being naughty) or tease them. PRICELESS!!!