On the weekend, I went to a cooking demonstration at Chef Jon Lee’s. It’s been my favorite restaurant for a while now. I’ve never been to a demo before but I’ve wanted to go to this one ever since I first tried the food there a year ago and learned that they did cooking demos. They had a couple last year but I couldn’t make either of them, plus Nathan was still so small and needy. What am I saying? He’s still needy.

Well, on my birthday a couple of months ago, we went to Chef Jon’s for dinner and found out they had cooking demos again. This time I made sure to go. Alan watched the kids and I invited my friend, Terri, to join me.

We watched Chef Jon make some of his popular dishes like sticky crunchy chicken, sweet and sour soup, spicy basil garlic fried rice, tamarind curry, babyback ribs, and scampi pasta with prawns. I bought some of his signature sauces to take home to make my own sticky crunchy chicken and babyback ribs. In fact, that’s what I made for dinner tonight, sticky crunchy chicken.

Chef Jon also talked about his background. He is inspiring, you’re never too old to follow your dreams. He didn’t start in the restaurant business, quite the opposite, he was working in the car industry. I believe he’s only been running his restaurant for a few years. He opened it after his teenage son prompted him to follow his heart.

I’m glad he did. He is so friendly and welcoming. You can really tell he loves cooking. I’ve liked all the dishes I’ve tried there, it’s the spicy kick to them, yum. There is nothing more frustrating than a restaurant, with unique delicious food, closing down (which happened to our regular Mexican place, we’re still trying to find a replacement near us). I hope they stay in business for a good long while. If you are in the San Francisco Bay Area you need to try the food there.

MMmmm…all this food talk, I’m hungry again. Ok, off to bed with me before I go sneaking into the kitchen for some sticky crunchy chicken.

So, I’ve done it again, waited until the last minute to post for NaBloPoMo. Well, practically the last minute, it’s about 11 p.m. And around 10 p.m. I procrastinated even more.

I had this mad desire to bake. I wanted chocolate chips cookies. Well, Isabelle wasn’t too keen on the idea so I thought I’d make peanut butter chip cookies instead. But I couldn’t do it. I love my chocolate so I decided not to omit the chocolate chips.

Maybe I wanted to bake because we’re not doing anything big for Thanksgiving. No apple pie. No turkey to worry days before about. No massive planning.

We’re doing a roast, some baked potatoes, brussel sprouts, and a macaroni salad. That’s my plan. Similar to what we did last year for Thanksgiving.

Maybe I miss it, the big planning for Thanksgiving. Maybe that’s why I wanted to bake. There must be some reason why I wanted cookies. Or maybe it’s just because it’s cookies!

There was this moment as Alan and I were sitting next to each other at our computers.

Then there was this. I walked in and the kids were sitting just like this neatly arranged by Isabelle. They then had their cereal right there under the blankets all propped up.

Then this. I saw a picture of gingerbread cookies online which sent me off to the kitchen to make cookies. But Isabelle wanted to decorate them. I am not so great with the decorating and Isabelle doesn’t usually like the icing so we used some food markers instead.

I love her decorated cookies.

With our leftover dough I made one big cookie. Isabelle drew a story on it about a monster king and the guy who slays him.

And finally this moment, Alan with a sticker earring on.

Yum! Recipe on Not So Humble Pie.

Mine didn’t come out as dark. But of course I didn’t have the proper ingredients. No dutch processed cocoa powder, just cocoa powder. I don’t know what the difference is. And no buttermilk. I replaced it with milk and vinegar.

And when will I learn? I need to reread cooking recipes before I make them. I remember reading the word “simple”. “Simple” is not quick. The mousse takes at least four hours. D’oh. I didn’t get to eat it right away like I wanted. Lesson #1: read the entire recipe.

And another thing I need to learn, this is too much cake. No one ever eats these sweets except for me. Well, everyone will have a little but a little bite here and there does not finish a cake. And Alan refused to bring it to work for his coworkers for some reason. I was going to call friends over to help with it but just didn’t. At one point during the weekend when Alan asked what I wanted for dinner I thought, we have so much cake, that’s what I’m having for dinner! Lesson #2: I need to make smaller cakes!

Did you know way back when…oh maybe a year ago, I was on this oatmeal kick. I had oatmeal everyday for breakfast. That was what I was in the mood for, every single day. Oatmeal with raisins, oatmeal with bananas, with strawberries, or with honey. Anything with oatmeal. I think it was after Nathan was born and then went on for months and months if not for a year. Then one day I didn’t want it anymore. Breakfast was harder then, always with the, what shall I have today?

Well, lately, I’ve been in the mood for strawberry smoothies, not a strange everyday kick, only once in a while when the mood hits. So, today, I thought I’d share how I make my strawberry smoothies.

All that is needed is these four ingredients: raw almonds, water, frozen bananas, and strawberries.

Boil the almonds for 3 minutes in water.

Remove the almond skins.

Throw the peeled almonds into a blender and blend with a cup of water. Strain the pulp if you like.

Ta da! You have just made almond milk!

Add strawberries and frozen bananas and blend until smooth.

And that’s it, strawberry banana almond smoothies!

Yoink!