Yogurt pound cake

The other day, when I was suppose to catch up with my readings, I started up browsing Epicurious (such a procrastinator) and came across this recipe.  It was awesome because I happened to have alot of yogurt in the fridge, and Mr.C was craving cake that day (he has a sweet tooth!).  Who wants to study and write papers when you can play with your kitchenaid and make something yummy!  

This cake turned out pretty well despite the lack of butter in the ingredients' list because it was tenderized/moisturized by yogurt!  The original recipe is called "Yogurt Cake with Marmalade".  I skipped the marmalade because it's yucky, and I like my cake plain and simple. I added lemon juice and cut the sugar by 1/3 so that my diabetic Dad could enjoy this as well (probably also better for the rest of us).  Mr.C likes chocolate chips in his cookies/cakes, so I threw in some bittersweet chocolate chips (I decrease the sugar amount in the recipe when I add this).

I have a paper and presentation due tomorrow in class.  Today, I ended up making a meatloaf for dinner and 2 loaves of this cake (to share amongst ourselves and our parents).  Mr.C thinks I do cook/bake alot when I'm stressed and bombarded with alot of work.  Hmmm, interesting observations.

Yogurt pound cake (with a twist)

• 1.5 cup all-purpose flour
• 2 tsps baking powder
• sprinkles of salt
• 1 cup plain whole milk yogurt (I used fat free vanilla yogurt)
• 1 cup sugar (I used less)
• 3 large eggs
• 1 tsp zested lemon peels
• few tbsps of lemon juice
• 1/4 tsp vanilla extract
• 1/2 cup vegetable oil
• 2/3 cups of chocolate chips - optional (or chopped nuts/mashed banana!)

1. Place rack in centre of oven.  Preheat oven to 350F
2. Butter/grease a loaf pan lightly
3. Combine all dry ingredients in a bowl
4. Mix all wet ingredients (except oil) until well blended.  Gradually mix in dry ingredients
5. Add chocolate chips (optional)
6. Fold in oil
7. Transfer batter into loaf pan.  Place pan onto baking sheet and transfer to oven to bake until cake begins to pull away from the sides of the pan, and tester inserted into centre comes out clean, for about 50 mins (top of cake will be a light golden brown).
8. Cool cake in pan on rack for 5 mins.  Cut around pan to loosen cake.  Get the cake out and cool it on rack completely. 

This is soooooo easy to make, and the cake is very moist.  No butter too, so try it!

Starbucks' Chinese clientele in Richmond.

The other day, a Chinese woman with a thick Northern Mandarin accent (I know, because my Dad has the same accent) in front of me ordered a grande Americano, and asked for 2 more empty grande cups.

I was puzzled at first. However, after she received her order, she waved to her two comrades standing at the far corner. The three of them proceeded to push everyone (myself included) out of the way and hogged the sugar/milk service bar and began to split the grande Americano into 3 equal parts amongst the 3 grande cups they had in total. Two of them filled the rest of their grande cups with coffee cream, while the woman (who originally made the purchase of the grande Americano) walked straight back to the kiosk and asked the barista for "a lee tell beet of soya pwease, vewy ah-lar-gic to cweam and milka". At the end, all three of them laughed, chatted, and walked away with a grande Starbucks coffee each in their hands.

Discuss.

Garfield would've been proud.

It looks like my guest blogger (see previous entry) is a little bit disappointed that there were zero buzzes to his post. Hopefully, he won't be discouraged by this and will make another guest appearance soon.

Anyways, I'd like to share with you an awesome lasagna recipe that I tried out last week. I had alot of cheeses in my fridge and I had a craving for cheese and pasta. I also wanted to make something worthwile so that hubs and I can have leftovers for lunches (which, I always try my best to do... it's healthier and waaaay cheaper than eating out!). So what did I make? LASAGNA. I've never really enjoyed making lasagna in the first place, because I hate that the top of my lasagnas always get crusty and somewhat burnt on the edges, and when I cut them up they turn into a soggy pile of mess and everything falls apart. For the life of me, I could never figure out why. But this recipe gave me the perfect lasagna. It's also great because it's so darn easy to make, and you can't possibly screw it up. They cut into perfect layered squares and oh, and I didn't get any burnt tops/edges! If you love lasagna or you want to make something to feed a small party of hungry people for dinner, this is awesome!

Sausage, Spinach and Ricotta Lasagna


Sauce:
8 oz light Italian sausage (I used Italian sweet basil sausages, because it was on sale.)
8 oz extra-lean ground beef
1 c chopped onions
2 t minced garlic
1 t dried oregano
1 t dried basil
1/4 t dried red pepper flakes (I didn't have any.)
1 jar (700 mL) pasta sauce (I just used whatever I had in the pantry.)
1 can (540mL) tomatoes with italian herbs, undrained, cut up (I used regular PC diced tomatos.)
1 T balsamic vinegar
1/2 t pepper (I never bother with measuring salt and pepper, or any seasonings.)

12 uncooked whole wheat lasagna noodles (I just used regular lasagna noodles.)
2 c light ricotta cheese (Couldn't find light, so I used the real ricotta cheese. That's ok, I've been working out alot these days!)
1 package frozen chopped spinach, thawed and squeezed dry
1/3 c grated parmesan cheese (Hubs dislikes parmesan cheese so I didn't use any.)
1 egg
1/3 c chopped FRESH basil (I used dried basil... sue me).
1/2 t salt (I used kosher salt)
2 c packed shredded part-skim mozzarella cheese (I just add whatever amount I wanted... and I also added cheddar cheese because I happen to have some in the fridge).

Directions:
1. Spray a 9x13 pan with cooking spray.

2. To make the sauce: remove casing from the sausage and break into small pieces in a large lot pan with a tiny bit of olive oil (I used extra virgin) . Add ground beef, onion and garlic. Cook over medium heat until the meat is no longer pink. Stir in oregano, red pepper flakes and dried basil.

Cook 1 more minute. Add pasta sauce, tomatoes, vinegar and pepper. Bring to a boil, and then simmer until you're ready to use it (at least 20 minutes).

3. While the sauce is simmering, cook the lasagna noodles until they are just ready (about 8-9 minutes). Rinse noodles with cold water (or they'd stick into a huge slab!).

4. In a medium bowl, mix together the ricotta, spinach, basil, parmesan, egg and salt.

5. To assemble the lasagna: start with 1 cup of the meat sauce on the bottom of the 9x13 pan. Top with 4 lasagna noodles. Spread 1/3 of the remaining sauce over the noodles. Top with 4 more noodles. Add 1/3 of the sauce again, then add ALL of the ricotta spinach mixture. Top with 4 more noodles. Add the rest of the sauce and spread evenly.

6. Top it all off with the shredded mozzarella. In my case, I added a load of mozza and cheddar cheese. omg, cheese!!!

7. *This is important*: Spray some oil on a piece of foil and cover your lasagna. Bake at 375F for 35 minutes. Uncover and bake an additional 15 minutes. Let stand for about 10-15 minutes before serving (or everything will become soggy).

8. Eat!



Mr.C and I really enjoyed this lasagna. We were also happy that we had awesome leftovers for lunches!

Uh Oh

This is a blog down memory lane. The year is 1997 and the dial up modem is in full effect like Wrex N' Effects (but 5 years later). The world is crazy about the interweb and alladvantage.com is about to revolutionize the way we surf the net. If you can identify with any of the crazy bantar written above, you sir/mam are ready to officially enter dwayne's World.

ZZZZZZZZ, ffffffffffffffff, kkkkkkkkkkkkkk, deeeeee is the keyboard reenactment of a dial up modem. 36 seconds and 28.8k later, you are offically connected to the internet. But before you double click the Internet Explorer icon, a question cuts through the air drowning out the sound of your brother pretending to practice piano in the background. It's your Mom asking you why everytime she hears ZZZZZZZZ, ffffffffffffffff, kkkkkkkkkkkkkk, deeeeee, none of her friends can phone the house. You smile and reply, "Not sure, I guess it's just a busy signal. Kind of like a faxee gay."

With the formalities out of the way, you aim your mouse arrow and proceed to double click your two button, non click wheel, geometrically shaped mouse. It's officially e-mail time. If you're lucky, there will be a message from a buddy who you haven't heard from in a while. And if it's a really good day, you'll get an e-mail with a subject line that looks like this fwd: hilarious jokes. Now it's on like donkey kong. Time to go nuts and laugh out loud.

As the e-minutes tick away, and your Mom's phone calls have mysteriously vanished, a more pressing issue is at hand. It's time to double click the little flower. You know, the yellow centered flower, surrounded by the nonchalant green petals and lonely single red petal. Yep, it's ICQ time. For all you new chat program users (MSN and later), ICQ = I Seek You. Don't act like you're not impressed.

You then login into your user account like this:

ICQ: 53886449
Password: password

After a few revolutions of the single red petal, your e-world is connected. Instant yellow rectangles blitz your 17" CRT monitor. A bombardment of Uh Oh's rip through the speakers giving you all the e-props you need. And so it begins....the beginning of the end. E-minutes tick into E-hours. The sound of birds chirp to the morning sun. "Just a few more minutes Mom, I'm going to fun gow right now!"

dT

Bubye 2008.... Hullo, 2009.

Hello, kiddos!  I didn't forget about this place.  I guess my lack of blogging has been a result of (or combination of) 1) lack of time, 2) laziness, 3) lack of interesting things to say.  Maybe I'm the only one who still read this blog.  That's ok, I have no problem talking to and reflecting on myself.  The year of 2008 has whipped by quickly before my eyes and I still can't believe it's 2009 already.  2008 has been a fulfilling year with lots of blessings and excitement along the way.  Let's recap, shall we?

• Visited Tokyo, Japan and Hong Kong with my hubby in March.  It was our first vacation together!  Originally, we didn't plan on vacationing after the wedding (we didn't even have a honeymoon).  But alot of my families (including my 93 year old grandma) from my mom's family were unable to attend our wedding back in 2007, so we decided to use the 1.5 weeks we had in spring break to visit my grandma and relatives in HK.  We found a great deal in the end so we stopped by Tokyo for 3 nights before our HK trip.  It was a fun trip.... too short, though.  We hope to return to Japan some day.
• Celebrated our 1st wedding anniversary.... actually, we didn't really celebrate.  I think we went to Kingspark for dinner (mmmm, honger mini-meals) and rented a movie afterwards.  We didn't even have gifts for each other or anything.... just cards.  But, we did go to a nicer place for dinner later on to celebrate our 10 years together as a couple.  The best part was, the meal was free because we had a gift card.  Double woooooo!
• My best friend gave birth to a healthy, handsome little boy!  He's probably the best looking baby I've met so far, and he melts my heart!
• Went to Vegas for 6 days.  It was an impromptu trip as hubs and I weren't planning on vacationing again after the Asia trip.  However, my coworker was able to score us a deal on a 1 bedroom apartment (with full size kitchen!) right on the strip for $40/night.  We also flew on Allegiant Air out of Bellingham to save money because, well, it was $80 per person for flight.  Score!
• Hubs and I both got into grad school and started our programs in September.  It was crazy going to work full time and doing school part time, but we survived our first term and did really well in our courses.   I was proud of the fact that I still managed to cook at home most of the days (besides eating with our parents).  And we didn't kill each other. Let's hope this keeps up.
• My brother got into VPD.  We are all so proud of and excited for him.  I think my dad even recorded a VHS clip of him being interviewed on the news... lmao.  Our families are looking forward to him graduating from the academy this summer.  (I want a ride in the cop car... with sirens on!  weeeee!)

The hubs and I were very lucky to both have 2 weeks off from work and school over the holiday break, so we took the opportunity to bum around and do nothing.  It was weird for the first day or two... not having any work or readings to do at home, and I was constantly on my Blackberry doing work emails.  It didn't take us long to start learning how to relax (I think hubs is better at this than me).  We mainly vegged at home, rented movies, braved the crowded malls, got caught up and finished Heroes' Season 2 (Yattaaaa!), spent time with our families, and hung out with a few good friends over the holidays.  I was happy to have time to cook and bake for families and friends.  Aside from getting small presents for our parents and brothers, we tried to stay away from overspending on things we don't really need because really, we're already blessed with far too many things we don't deserve.  But, I did get a coffee card for the hubs at his favorite coffee shop (not Starbucks!), and he got me a pair of iPod headphones so that I can use my iPod when I'm at the gym.  Have I mentioned how sucky the stock ones are?  They never want to stay in your ears and don't even try to work out with them on... they just slide right off your ears as soon as you move.

Anyways, there are many things I hope to accomplish in 2009.  Some of which include:

• Having more patience at work.  Oh dear, I couldn't count how many times at work I've lost my cool and was really close to killing anything that moves near me.  Not good.
• Keep up with my work out sessions at the gym (I completely stopped my exercise routine over the holidays, so I'm looking forward to getting back on it next week).
• Find time to do devotions.
  

Happy new year, everyone.  I hope this year brings you much love and happiness along the way!