Memorial Day BBQ, grilling with City Hall in the distance--what could be better?! :)

The grill! Mmmm!

Corn salad.

Kimchi.

Tzatziki.

My chips and blue cheese bacon dip were here, too!

Grilled chicken with chili Lizano sauce.

Sherbert, Sprite cocktail.

The grill: part 2! :)

My sausage! Amazing. I used a bit of my bacon blue cheese dip as spread, then put down the hot link and tons of caramelized onions--mmmm! Superb! :)

Cherry pie and my peach amaretto ice cream for dessert! :)

Such an amazing BBQ to lazy away Memorial Day! Pat has such a lovely rooftop and rounded up a fine bunch of friends to celebrate and eat all day with!

Garlic, bacon blue cheese dip.

I didn't use exact measurements, but I used a lot of heavy cream, some cream cheese, blue cheese, sour cream, a little flour, garlic, garlic salt in a medium pan and kept stirring it over medium heat.

Baaacon.

Mix in the bacon, add some freshly ground black pepper to taste. I should have topped this with some chives and bacon bits, but was in a rush and forgot! The dip was awesome though! :)

Off to the BBQ! :)

Peach Amaretto lime ice cream sorbet.

My amazing friend Pat was hosting a Memorial Day BBQ! I wanted to do a side and a dessert, so I thought I'd do bacon blue cheese dip as my side and then some ice cream as my dessert. I was so in love with my roommate's Almond Ice Cream that I thought I'd make that for the BBQ! I thought I'd also do a Peach Amaretto Lime sorbet.

4 peaches in the food processor.

Pureed! Meanwhile you make a simple syrup and mix it with the pureed peaches. I then decided to add lime juice, almond extract and amaretto to make this like a SoCo Amaretto Lime cocktail sorbet!

FAIL! The machine didn't take with all of the Amaretto I put in there! I realized it just wasn't going to work, so I figured--the flavors in my two ice creams both go well together and both have amaretto so why not mix them and see what happens? Thus, I set out on a new path to make a Peach Amaretto lime ice cream sorbet. Or creamy sorbet. :)

Almond ice cream mixture. I mixed the sorbet mixture into this and made two batches of ice cream in my ice cream maker.

The final product! A hybrid ice cream sorbet! :) It was very tasty. The flavor mix kind of made it taste like cherry for some reason, but in a good way. :)

*This was a big hit at the Memorial Day BBQ! :)

Peach Amaretto Lime Ice Cream Sorbet

Ingredients:

• 1/2 cup water
• 3 tbsp sugar
• 3 tbsp lime juice (can add more later to taste)
• 3 tbsp Amaretto liqueur
• 4 peaches, sliced
• Ingredients for the Almond ice cream.

Recipe:

1. Make simple syrup by dissolving sugar in water.
2. Add lime juice and Amaretto liqueur. Mix well and let cool.
3. Puree the peaches.
4. Mix the peaches and simple syrup in a large bowl.
5. Create mix for Almond ice cream.
6. Combine peach mixture with Almond ice cream mixture with a whisk.
7. Since this is two mixtures, pour half in the ice cream maker and turn on for 20 minutes.
8. Place other half of mix in tupperware and place in freezer.
9. When the first half is done, put it into tupperware and freeze. It will be a more runny than normal ice cream from an ice cream maker.
10. Place second batch in ice cream maker and turn on for 20 minutes.
11. When the second batch finished, pour it over the first batch, or in a separate tupperware container.
12. Freeze overnight--this will take awhile to freeze because of the alcohol, so freeze it for as long as possible!

New favorite cereal: Quaker Oatmeal Squares.

Ahh! Amazing!

So crunchy, a good sweetness and healthy!

Okay, so my three favorite cereals now are Peach Honey Bunches of Oats, Oh's, and Quaker Oatmeal Squares. Yay!

Fenton's Ice Cream Challenge, Oakland, CA.

The famous Fenton's (featured in Pixar's Up.).

My slice of mocha mud ice cream pie. This was pretty good. There wasn't as much coffee flavor as I was hoping for. Also, their ice cream texture is more whip cream like, which I don't like as much so I wouldn't head out to Oakland again specifically for Fenton's, but understand the appeal. :)

One of the sundaes!

One of my roommates, who claims ice cream as his favorite food, decided to try the Fenton's Ice Cream Challenge! It's a massive three-scoop (Fenton's scoops are about the size of a softball!), banana split with crushed pineapple, chocolate fudge, strawberry syrup, whip cream and a cherry on top! The goal is to finish this in 15 minutes!

They are strict about the 15 minutes, too. Our waiter, who wasn't my favorite person, started the stop watch, came back at the 6 minute and 9 minute marks and then of course, at the 15 minute mark. My roommate had finished about 1/3rd of his ice cream. He said the toughest part was that the ice cream was so cold that your teeth hurt so you couldn't eat it very quickly!

And about half an hour later.. finished! Or at least as finished as it was going to be!

I wouldn't recommend the challenge, although it is on the menu and would be good to split with 3-5 people, depending on your ice cream appetites!

So Fenton's is fun, and I'm so glad I finally got to go! I definitely want to come back for the food--oh goodness the onion rings, curly fries and burgers looked just amazing! I'm not huge on the texture of their ice cream though.

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Pho Au Sen, Oakland, CA.

My amazing vermicelli noodles with imperial rolls! This is my favorite Vietnamese dish and the one here was HUGE! The biggest portion I think I've ever been served, but the sauce wasn't the best I've had. The rolls were a generous portion and very tasty though. I was super happy with this dish and had leftovers--yay!

Meatball pho. Again, very generous with the meat! The broth here is beef based and they used thinner noodles for their pho.

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Artillery boutique 1 Year Anniversario party, Mission, SF.

Artillery AG, a local art/design boutique in the Mission, was celebrating their 1 year anniversary party!

Shakirah (right) of Slow Jams! She gifted me one of her strawberry jams and I can't wait to try it! Her stuff was so cute (designed by her boyfriend Philip) and her baked goods were such a hit. Mmm!

Artillery's 1st b-day cake! Yay! This had a pineapple filling that was pretty yummy. :)

The guys at Artillery are SO great and I had so much fun celebrating with them! Go shop and support local art/design! :)

Fresh Asparagus Soup.

This was sooo yummy! It smelled so good and tasted great!

My roommates made it from AllRecipes.com. Here is a copy/paste of the recipe.

Ingredients

• 1 pound fresh asparagus
• 3/4 cup chopped onion
• 1/2 cup vegetable broth
• 1 tablespoon butter
• 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 pinch ground black pepper
• 1 1/4 cups vegetable broth
• 1 cup soy milk
• 1/2 cup yogurt
• 1 teaspoon lemon juice
• 1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese

Directions

1. Place asparagus and onion in a saucepan with 1/2 cup vegetable broth. Bring the broth to a boil, reduce heat and let simmer until the vegetables are tender.
2. Reserve a few asparagus tips for garnish. Place remaining vegetable mixture in an electric blender and puree until smooth.
3. Melt butter in the pan that was used for simmering the asparagus and onions. Stir while sprinkling flour, salt, and pepper into the butter. Do not let the flour brown. Allow the mixture to cook only 2 minutes. Stir in remaining 1 1/4 cups vegetable broth and increase the heat. Continue stirring until the mixture comes to a boil.
4. Stir the vegetable puree and milk into the saucepan. Whisk yogurt into the mixture, followed by lemon juice. Stir until heated through, then ladle into bowls. Garnish with reserved asparagus tips. Sprinkle with Parmesan cheese if desired.

Vegan chocolate chip cookie, BATS Improv, Fort Mason, SF.

I was craving a little dessert during the BATS Improv Improvised Tarantino night. They had these vegan cookies at the concession stand.. I'm typically a bit hesitant to try vegan baked goods because they have been hit and miss for me in the past. I was skeptical about these, but the lady at the stand said they were great so I decided to try one. They are AMAZING! Seriously, this was one taaaaasty chocolate chip cookie.

I definitely want to try more from the Alternative Baking Company!

Almond ice cream.

Mmmm! My roommate made this lovely almond ice cream. It has such a nice almond flavor.

Ingredients:

• 2 cups 2% milk
• 2 cups heavy cream
• 1 cup sugar
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 tsp almond extract
• 2 tbsp amaretto liqueur

Recipe for ice cream maker:

1. Make sure ice cream machine bowl is frozen.
2. Mix everything in a large bowl with a whisk.
3. Pour mix into ice cream machine bowl.
4. Turn machine on and leave for approximately 20 minutes.
5. When the ice cream changes into a fluffy texture and is nearly overflowing, transfer into a tupperware container.
6. Freeze for 4 hours or overnight.

Seattle style hot do with blue cheese salad.

Up in the amazing city of Seattle, the hot dog stands serve hot dogs with cream cheese and it's the most amazing thing ever! Seriously! It's spread out into Spokane now, but now quite down to SF yet. Brilliant combination though.

I was craving a hot dog so I toasted up a wheat bun, spread on some veggie cream cheese and then topped my hot link with some caramelized onions. The salad was simply chopped up romaine, Marie's Blue Cheese Vinaigrette (LOVE their products!), some toasted almonds and cracked black pepper. There was a lot of salad so I only had half the hot dog, but this was a fantastic meal. :)

Pizza craving, Mythic Pizza, Lower Haight, SF.

Photo posted by Jim L on Yelp.

I was at the amazingly fabulous pub quiz at Mad Dog In The Fog, when I got a sudden pizza craving!!! This happens.. semi frequently. Hahah. I ran over to Mythic and grabbed a slice of the "San Francisco". This was recommended to me by a friend and it was all right, but not my favorite. I think next time I want to do a "make your own" with feta, eggplant and sun-dried tomatoes. I don't know about you, but that sounds really yums to me! Haha.

I do have to note one more thing.. they have this big bottle of hot sauce, and I think it's watered down Tapatio. I know my Tapatio and it seemed like it was that, but a lot more runny and when I tried it on the pizza it wasn't spicy so that also leads me to believe that it's watered down Tap. Not cool! Sacrilege! :)

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Sushi fail at Mikaku, Union Square, SF.

Okay, this place gets points for presentation, but that's it. We were going to use a Restaurant.com gift certificate my friend purchased in January and apparently they stopped honoring them in February. You think they would honor the ones purchased before February, but no. We were starving though so we decided to give it at try anyway.

I'd never heard of this place, which isn't a good sign from the get go.. and then the waitress wasn't knowledgeable about sushi. We asked a couple questions and they weren't answered. Then the sushi we got was dry, flavorless and just nooooot good. :( Well, it's on the DO NOT GO list.

*Note: The combined bad food + bad service has really led me to just write this place off. I don't feel the need to list what we ordered! :( I really think the restaurant is just poor quality, and it takes quite a bit for me to say that.

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Third time's a semi-charm, Stone Korean, Embarcadero Center, SF.

Banchan. A little weak. I feel like they should be more consistent with their banchan portions. Sometimes you'll go and get 7 side dishes and sometimes 3. It's good for a Korean restaurant to change up the banchan, but still good to have a lot.

Stone wings. The wings changed? I liked these more than last time though, but again, it's confusing to not be consistent. Hopefully this is a change that sticks and doesn't change again!

Pork and Kimchee sandwich. Okay, so the first time I dined here, I tried the entrees and was disappointed. The next time I came back to try the happy hour menu and that was fine. This time I came to try one of the sandwiches! I keep coming back because I really want to like this place! I feel like it has potential.

So, okay, let me just say my dad has been making us Korean sandwiches since I was kid so I'm kind of a self-proclaimed expert. :) This sandwich didn't cut it for me. The bread was boring--bland, dry, didn't add anything and made me want to eat the pork and kimchee with rice. I feel like a nice, buttery, toasted artisan bread would be perfect. And some veggies--it was just pork and kimchee, and not even the best pork and kimchee so yeah.. not my favorite.

The bibimbap was nice. I like the veggies they use, but I think it's completely silly that you have to pay $1 extra for an egg on top, when it is standard with the dish. Also, they don't put enough rice in it--some people might like that, but I don't. Taste wise, it's fine, but it's meant to have a certain rice : everything else ratio.

I'm VERY happy to report that we had a friendly waitress though! I think she maybe worked sales or retail before because she tried to get us to order a million things, which I didn't really like, but she was at least nicer than the previous wait staff. And I don't mean she suggested things saying they were really good, she REALLY tried to get us to over order. It was strange. We didn't though and it worked out nicely. We shared the above three dishes among three people and we were all very satisfied after. But yes, yay for better service!

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Greasy Chinese Vietnamese at Tu Lan, SoMa, SF.

Photo from ji k on Yelp.

What we ordered:

#20. Mi Xao Don - Shrimp, Pork, Chicken

#39. Veg. & Crispy Noodle, Bo Luc Lac - Beef Cubes VN Style.

I didn't get a shot of the food because I didn't have my camera, but this place is a gem!! A gem, I say!!! Haha. It's definitely a hole-in-the-wall, but I love it so.

#39. Oh my goodness!! It was AMAZING. I'm craving it right now as I write this. Haha. It's not really like shaking beef because it has this sauce, but the sauce is oh so good!

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Eggplant, chicken and vegetable fried rice.

This was pretty great. I used my special Asian sauce with rice, egg, eggplant, chicken, baby corn, broccoli, green beans, black pepper. This was great! :)

Whenever I make fried rice I cook rice in my rice maker like normal. Then I cook the egg first and then set it aside. Then anything else that needs to be cooked separately like chicken and eggplant. Next, everything else. Then I mix in the rice and sauce and add the cooked egg last.

Moleskine Recipe Journal.

My soon to be sister-in-law, Jessica, who is also a big foodie, got me this wonderful Moleskine Recipe Journal! It's so fabulous and I'm big on pen & paper, so this will be a great place to keep my favorite recipes!

You can click on the photos to enlarge. Moleskine is one of my favorites--the folks there have some pretty clever designs. :)

The cute cover imprint.

Calories, carbs, etc! Wow!

It even comes with these cute stickers!

I love this! Thanks so much, Jess! :)

Birthday gift cards.

What is the perfect present for a foodie? Gift cards! Haha. I'm pretty difficult to shop for (Picky? Gilty!), so gift cards are really my favorite! Trinh and Kat got me this wonderful one to Williams Sonoma.

And my brother got me this one to Trader Joe's! Yay!

Thank you guys, SOOOO much! :) These will get great use. ;)

Birthday strawberry-lemon layered cake and layered cupcakes with coconut cream cheese frosting.

Lemon cake. Strawberry cake now in the oven..

Strawberry and lemon cupcakes.

Strawberry cream cheese filling frosting.

Sliced cupcakes.

Frosted and put back together with alternate tops and bottoms!

And frosted!

Lemon cake, sliced in half.

Strawberry cake, sliced in half and top cut off (because of the dome).

So the layers went strawberry, lemon, strawberry, lemon, with the strawberry cream cheese frosting between each layer.

Frosted with coconut cream cheese frosting and sprinkles!

Side. :)

Sliced and served later at my post-birthday, Lost finale party! I gave the cupcakes to people, after dinner, who weren't attending the Lost party so everyone got some birthday cake! :)