lovelove day ♥

This Valentine's is our first as an *engaged* couple. Not that it makes any difference but it IS a little different from our norm since we now live together. Before we moved in together, Russ would just come over to my house, chill or we'd go out, have a dinner date and then he'd have to go home or he would sleepover but that would be like once a week. Now I get to see him everyday and night :D It is pretty nice getting to see your significant other everyday... well sometimes it's not so nice... jk! Anyways, even though we live together, I still think it's important to have date nights and keep the romance alive!! and not just on vday!! But I do like celebrating holidays and special occasions :) Since vday fell on a Monday (he works), we decided to celebrate on Sunday. We didn't do anything big.. just had a nice dinner date at Tsukuneya Robata Grill (located near UH). We went there once like a long time ago so I was pretty excited to go back.. plus I love tsukune!


My pineapple chu hai... got me a good buzzzz.


Crunchy cabbage salad w/black sesame dressing... I ordered this cause I love cabbage!!!


Mayomiso Tsukune... super bombtastic. I think mayo makes everything taste bomtastic though :P


Tsukune stuffed shitake mushroom.. one of my favs.


Onigiri


Dynamite


Fried bananas

Ordered some other things but I ate it before I could take a pic oops! Everything was delish and I was went home stufffed n satisfied :) Oh and instead of roses this year, Russ paid to get my nails done :)

Nails by Anri!! lovesss it. Don't know if you can tell but there's a little diamond ring on my ring finger :)

Don't get me wrong.. I do love getting flowers! But I do looove having pretty nails!! and they last a little longer than flowers :P hmm I should of gotten both. lol jk! My bubby (not my hubby just yet!!) is superduperawesome for putting up with my ridiculous nail addiction :P and for putting up with me all these years. So grateful for him in my life... not just on vday but everyday!! Knowing that I get to spend the next 489903292438 years (hopefully lol) with him makes me happy :) Even being able to come home to him makes me giddy *cheesy* I know. Love... definitely a beautiful thing :)

happy vday 2011 ♥

Crepe FAIL!!

So recently I've been really into crepes. My friend Maiko & I have been on a mission to find the best crepe on the island!! As I mentioned before, so far the Harajuku Crepes have been the best ones we've tried so far. The other crepe place we went to was this small hole in the wall mom & pop's type place called Ailana's Shave Ice (not to be mistaken for Wailana's). That was pretty good.. but the crepe wasn't folded and wrapped up cute like how Japanese crepes normally are. It was also a little more soggier. The crepe skin itself seemed more eggy... like a runny omelet lol. But it was filling and satisfied my crepe craving! Wish I had taken a pic of it but the crepe wasn't as presentable so I didn't feel like it needed a picture :/

Anyway, last night Maiko and I had our sudden urge of crepes again. We planned on going to the mall to do a little shopping and then we were going to hit up Harajuku Crepes at Shirokiya for a late night crepe. It was around 8 o'clock and we figured since Shirokiya closes at 9, the crepe place would still be open.

Well I guess the crepe gods were frowning down upon us because we were like literally a second too late. We saw a couple eating a freshly made crepe... so we thought ok great they are still open! But we didn't see the mean korean lady at the counter so we waited thinking she was on break (like she usually is). Then one of the Shirokiya staff came up to us and said the crepe lady just left :( You should of seen the expression on our faces... it was like someone told us it was the end of the world. We glared at the couple who were scarfing down their crepes and walked out... hungry and wanting crepes even more.

We contemplated Papa Beards, bubble tea and cheesecake... but I think we were so set on our mission to eat crepes that night we were willing to go all lengths for it. I had heard about a crepe place in Waikiki and thought that would be the next best thing. So we drove down to Waikiki... parked my car at the Royal Hawaiian and then walked all the way to The Crepe House which is located next to 24 Hour Fitness by Pacific Beach Hotel. It felt like forever walking there, but when we finally got there we were pretty damn excited.

They had a vast selection on savory and sweet crepes. They had pizza crepes, ham and cheese, pb&j and even loco moco crepe!! The crab cake crepe and the tuna & egg crepe sounded pretty good too.. but I was in the mood for a sweet one and ordered a strawberry & banana w/vanilla gelatto crepe (yes it's gelato instead of ice cream!). Maiko got the same thing except with cinnamon gelatto.

We were a little startled by the price though... it was about $7 for a crepe with everything in it. At Harajuku Crepe it's $5!!! But I guess it was kind of expected, being that it's in Waikiki and all. We were so hungry that we didn't care about it being $7 anymore. Crepes were made fast and handed to us nicely wrapped like the Japanese way ^_^ So the final verdict?

It was ehhhhh. Yeah that's all I can say for it. It honestly looked like it was going to be a pretty amazing crepe but the crepe itself was very thin and dry. Not moist and fluffy like Harajuku Crepes. Even the whip cream wasn't that good :/ The strawberry and banana still tasted a little frozen. And normally by the time we finish eating our crepes, we are so full that we complain about how full we are for the next 5 min. But this time? We got right up afterwards and walked towards f21 without a struggle. That just goes to show how unfufilling it was!!!

Oh well, I guess Harajuku Crepes won once again!!!!

Sick... again ;_;

I've been on a little blog hiatus because I pretty much felt like dying this past weekend!! I got sick yet again... as if I thought I couldn't get any sicker!? On Thursday, I had these weird aches and pains in my back but I figured it was cause I was carrying the kids at work. But then when I got home, I started getting chills. I still didn't think much of it and thought it was due to the chilly weather outside. I had to go meet my mom that evening and started feeling weak and dizzy. Later that night I felt even worse and seriously thought I was going to like pass out. Well I go to my mama's house and decided to take my temperature since I felt like I was heating up a little bit. Well lo and behold, I had a temp of 101.4. I rarely ever get fevers so this was a surprise. I couldn't believe that I was sick again after I was still recovering from my other cold and had a long drawn out cough that I still have!! :::sigh::: when will it ever end? I guess that's what comes with working with kids. As much as I love my little kiddies at work.. I wonder if it's worth my health and all the stress that I go through everyday. Anyways, I've been pretty much resting and taking it easy all weekend.

Once I started recovering a little, I had enough energy to do some cooking. Yes even with the flu, I still somehow had my appetite lol. I've been really into cooking ever since Russ and I moved into our new place. I'll admit, at first I was terrified since me cooking usually results in disaster. In fact my first real meal that I cooked for Russ when we moved into our new place was almost inedible :X He almost banned me from the kitchen lol. Thankfully with lots of practice and nights of having to cook dinner for myself while Russ was at work, I got so much better :D And now it's an enjoyment rather than a chore. Even Russ will admit now that some of my dishes are pretty good :P Maybe I got some of my dad's natural cooking skillz inborn in me ;) Anyway, here are a few dishes I have made!

Made mentaiko pasta w/pork belly for Russ. My first attempt of mentaiko pasta was a fail cause I cooked it... but it's better eaten raw!! doh.

Arabiki & longanisa sausage pasta... yes I like Filipino sausages!!

Btw you know what's a cooking tool must have!??

A food chopper!! And not just any food chopper but the Zyliss food chopper!! This seriously works wonders. If you hate cutting onions like I do, then you will no longer have to worry cause the Zyliss chops it right up... tears free!!


See?


It even nicely chops up garlic :) Oh Zyliss, what would I do without you?


This is another dish I made today.. arabiki sausage potato salad. I've been using a lot of arabiki sausage because Russell bought a load of them from Nijiya market so I've been trying to think of different ways to use them.


Russell made this "arabiki donburi"... looks good right? Well it FAILED tremendously. Even Russ will admit to it. He made his own sushi rice and mixed it with mentaiko... PLUS spicy arabiki sauasage and tamago... bleck. At least we know now that sushi rice + mentaiko + arabiki don't go good together!!!!!!


Btw, this bread dipping mix is awesome. I actually got it at Ross (which I don't normally reccommend for buying food). But I would say this is pretty safe and it taste really good with just some olive oil & balsamic vinegar!


This is one of our fav late night snacks... french bread & dip.





This is random, but thought this was a super cute but eerie artsy pic of my kiddies I babysit :D


This is her *hmmph* face... gosh I love chubby babies don't you?

I'm also really into bento making.

omurice w/arabiki sausages and red bell peppers

It's not as cute as how those Japanese mom's make for their kiddies, but hey it's a start right?