Firsts…

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A few “firsts” this week for me…

Yesterday, I went for my first workout of the new year at the UCSF gym. Ron and I joined last week for our New Year’s resolution to be a bit more healthy this year. I sure am sore. Oh well, with time hopefully it’ll get better.

Today I went to the library. I don’t think I’ve been to a public library since high school… I can’t remember the last time I checked out a book. I love books but I usually just buy the ones I’m interested in or will browse at Borders or Barnes & Nobles. I’m glad I went today though, picked up a few books… I’ve already started reading Marley & Me.

Also, tonight was the first time I’ve seen Mochi and Misu simultaneously cleaning each other. Usually Mochi is the one cleaning Misu. I didn’t capture a good picture of them in action but here’s a photo of them sitting together keeping warm. Makes me want to join them but then I’d disturb them…

Koi Garden – fresh lobster

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http://www.koipalace.com/….html?page=home

I spent the day at my parents’ house in San Ramon. They kindly let me use their washer and dryer to do my laundry, saved me from using all my quarters 🙂 We went out together for dinner at Koi Garden because my parents had just recently been there for the delicious lobster. The restaurant was experimenting with a lobster “three-ways”: sashimi, rice, and stir-fried.

The sashimi was delicious with a bit of lime, wasabi, and soy sauce. The texture is a bit crunchy but also like fish.

My parents were already experts at this so they asked for a pot of hot sharkfin flavored broth to poach the lobster and lettuce. The soup was tasty and warmed us all up. I preferred the lobster meat raw though, the fresh flavor was more pronounced.

My dad compared the rice dish to a Spanish paella, except this was curry flavored and very much Asian.

I didn’t care for it as much, a bit too many onions, not enough other vegetables, and not enough sauce for all the rice.

My phone camera went on the fritz and I couldn’t take a picture of the last “way” which was stir fried with green onions. Tasty but a mess to eat.

A very satisfying dinner with my family.

Koi Garden
4288 Dublin Blvd Ste 213
Dublin, CA

Sugar Bowl Ski Resort

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http://www.sugarbowl.com/home

We left SF at 6am this morning for a day of skiing and snowboarding in Lake Tahoe. We decided to go to Sugar Bowl Ski Resort since it is the first resort you hit on your way to Tahoe. Surprisingly there was little traffic in the morning so we arrived at the resort a little after 8:30am. It was foggy on I-80 but luckily my dad’s SUV is equipped with fog lights.

Look how happy Ron is to be in snow country:

But then so am I, the last time we went skiing was in Korea last December.

It looked like it was going to be a gloomy day…

But it actually turned out to be perfect, a bit sunny but not too sunny so that the snow was melting, a bit windy but not so windy that the powder would lift up to hit you in the face, and most parts of the mountain had quite soft snow. I fell in a few parts where the snow was really icy but that was near the top of the mountain.

I have to say thank you to a good samaritan who found our digital camera. I think when I was having trouble going through some flat parts of the run, our camera must have slipped out of my inside jacket pocket while I was “crawling”. I didn’t have the camera for most of the afternoon but when I quit around 2:30pm (I was too tired and out of shape…), I went to the hotel front desk and someone had actually returned it! Thank you to whoever found it! I was so sad at first because we had lost a camera at our friends’ wedding in San Diego and it had a lot of pictures on it that we hadn’t downloaded yet. I vowed never to lose another one and was kind of depressed when this one had gone missing… but all is good now and our camera is back 🙂

So I have pictures from the end of the day too… we went with our friends Susan & Ken and with Ron they stayed on the slopes until 4pm. I just went to enjoy a hot cocoa-coffee (~mocha) in the cafe.

We left around 4:30pm as the sun was setting.

There was slow traffic on the way out of Tahoe but we made it home around 8pm, after stopping at In-n-Out for dinner in Vacaville.

Tomorrow is back to work… and sore muscles…

New Year’s Eve

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We had a nice low key New Year’s Eve celebration at Kat & Jon’s place in Russian Hill. Kat whipped up a yummy meal of seafood fettuccine and tomato baby greens salad. We had cocktails, wine, and champagne to enjoy while waiting for midnight.

I made a dessert which turned out pretty good that I think I’m going to try again to improve on it. The base recipe comes from Big, Soft, Chewy Cookies by Jill Van Cleave. It’s the recipe for raspberry bars but I didn’t have raspberries so used applesauce and this Korean tea made with fruits, on wikipedia, it is referred to as mogwa cha.

So here’s the recipe to try:

3/4 cup (1-1/2 sticks) unsalted butter at room temp
1/3 cup confectioners’ sugar plus 1 tbsp for garnish
1/2 tsp grated lemon rind (substitute 1/4 tsp lemon juice)
1/4 tsp ginger
1-1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1/4 cup finely chopped almonds (I used pecans)
1/4 cup quick-cook oats
2 tbsp dark brown sugar
1/4 tsp baking powder
1/2 cup raspberry fruit or preserves (I used 1/4 cup applesauce and 1/4 cup mogwa cha, the Korean tea is syrupy sticky so the applesauce was to thin it out a bit)

1. Heat oven to 350 F
2. Cream 1/2 cup (1 stick) butter and confectioners’ sugar
3. Add lemon rind, ginger, and 1 cup flour. Mix to form a smooth dough. Spread into an ungreased 8-inch square baking pan and press to pack evenly in the bottom
4. Bake until crust is set but not brown, about 15 minutes.
5. While crust is baking, combine remaining 1/2 cup flour with almonds, brown sugar, quick-cook oats, and baking powder in a bowl and mix together. Add the remaining 1/4 (1/2 stick) butter and stir until mixture is crumbly (using a fork helps)
6. When crust is done baking, place pan on rack and spread fruit spread onto hot crust and spread evenly
7. Sprinkle almond-oats-brown sugar topping (step 5) over fruit filling and press down lightly. Return to oven and bake until topping is golden brown, about 30 minutes.
8. Place pan on a rack and let cool; sift 1 tbsp confectioners’ sugar evenly over the top and cut into bars
9. Store cookies in the baking pan at room temp for up to 5 days

Sorry no pics, I forgot again to take some before they got gobbled up.

We watched the ball drop on TV in NY at 9pm and again at midnight and watched the SF fireworks from their living room window…

They have a beautiful view from their apt, I didn’t bring my dad’s digital SLR but I’m sure there will be time again when I can take more pics.

Happy New Year!