Soft Pretzel Slabs?

I am a big, big, BIG lover of soft pretzels. I love carbs, I don't ever think I could live my life without pasta, rice, or bread. And if I had too, I'd probably live my life drugged up on uppers or commit suicide. It's really THAT big of a deal to me! I especially love bread that's chewy in texture, that's why Soft Pretzels are my bread soul mate. They're salty, chewy, soft and utterly delicious! 

I've never attempted to make any sort of risen bread before, but I thought it best that pretzels be my first try! I admit, even at this first try, I was quite lazy. I mean I didn't even have the patience to roll them out and twist them, how pathetic can I be?!?? But it didn't matter because these were delicious none the less! Instead of rolling them I just sliced off "slabs" and baked them. Eating them with mustard is a must!!

Soft Pretzels

Yields: 8 pretzels

Original recipe from Sugarlaws, which can be found here

Printable Recipe

1 tsp. active dry yeast

pinch of sugar

1/3 cup warm water

1 1/4 cup flour

2 tbsn. sugar

1/2 tsp. salt

1 tbsn. canola oil

3 tbsn. baking soda

1 cup hot water

sea salt/ pretzel salt

Dissolve yeast into 1/3 cup warm water with a pinch of sugar, let stand for 10 minutes until mixture is creamy colored and bubbly. Mix the yeast mixture with the flour, salt, sugar and canola oil, knead until combined. Let dough rise in a greased bowl until doubled in size, about 45 - 60 minutes. Preheat oven to 435 F, when dough has risen, pinch off a handful of the dough and roll out into a long strand, about 24 inches. Repeat this with the rest of the dough. Once all have been rolled out, take the first strand and stretch it out again (the gluten should have relaxed and you should be able to stretch it out longer). Twist into a pretzel shape (using video below) and place them onto a greased baking sheet. 

Dissolve the baking soda into the 1 cup of hot water, stir until dissolved. Quickly dip each pretzel into the mixture and place back onto the baking sheet. Sprinkle with sea salt/ pretzel salt and bake for about 6 - 8 minutes until golden brown. Serve with grainy mustard and enjoy!

Tailored Tuedays

A touch of coral and some costume jewelry to brighten up a monotone work-day outfit. 

1. Theory "Cooper cashmere blend cardigan"

2. Thakoon "Blossom print silk dress"

3. Lanvin "Amalia quilted shoulder bag"

4. Sergio Rossi "Suede platform sandals"

5. Isharya "Polki bib necklace"

all images can be found at net-a-porter.com

Dark Chocolate Peanut Butter Cups

I've been seeing these cute little cups all over Tastespotting and Foodgawker lately and I would have never though to make my own Reeses cups but it seemed like a fun little project and when I saw a version done in dark chocolate, I knew I had to try it! Since I've also been planning on making Bakerella's Cupcake Bites, I bought a candy mold from Michael's that made these super easy to make. 

I decided to use crunchy peanut butter that made it extremely hard to mix, so I suggest not doing that, but if you'd like to work it out, the crunchy bits made it extra yummy! I suggest using the amount of crunchy peanut butter below and then adding two more tablespoons of smooth peanut butter to ease the mixing. The sweetness of the filling balanced out the dark chocolate really well, they were extremely delicious if you love chocolate and peanut butter (I don't know who doesn't) and I can't stand how cute these were!

Dark Chocolate Crunchy Peanut Butter Cups

Yields: 12 - 16 mini peanut butter cups

Original recipe can be found here.

Printable Recipe

8 oz. bittersweet chocolate

1/3 cup crunchy or smooth peanut butter

1/4 cup powdered sugar

1/4 cup crushed graham crackers

In a bowl mix together the peanut butter, powdered sugar, and crushed graham crackers, set aside. Melt the chocolate either by a double boiler or by a microwave in 30 second intervals until smooth. To make the cups you can either use a candy mold or a mini cupcake pan lined with mini liners. Using a pastry brush or a small spoon, spread the melted chocolate along the bottom and sides of the mold or liner. Let harden in freezer for about 10 - 15 minutes. Remove them from the freezer and then fill them with about a teaspoon of the peanut butter mixture, smooth into the bottom of the chocolate cup. Spoon more of the melted chocolate on the top of the peanut butter mixture to cover out to the edges. Put in the freezer again to harden, about 10 - 15 minutes. If desired, melt some white chocolate and use a piping bag to pipe patterns on the top. Enjoy!!!

Porto's Bakery and Cafe {Glendale, CA}

This place is the best thing to happen since sliced bread... oh wait, they have sliced bread here too! If you've never been to Porto's or even heard of it, I suggest you listen in, and listen well friends. This place is nothing short of AMAZING. It's packed like a sardine can from the time they open to the time they close with offerings such as authentic cuban sandwiches, cuban pastries, and other various delights as well! But the best part? It is SO affordable. You can get high end cakes and desserts at such a great price, which is the heart of why they have been so successful. I mean lunch for $3.00? You have got to be kidding me, especially in times like these, Porto's has maintained great business and great, delicious, amazing, incredibly, delightful food (I could have used about 20 more adjectives there)! Only problem is that it's quite far from where I live, that's why one trip equals us practically buying the whole store to bring home and live on for the next couple weeks!

Refugiado/ Cheese Roll: What Porto's is most famous for! Sugar dusted puff pastry filled with sweet cheese cream. SO delicious, the pastry is absolutely amazing, it no wonder why people die for this stuff! ($7.40 for a dozen)
Refugiados/ Guava Cheese Rolls: Another favorite, just another version of their cheese rolls but filled with delicious guava jam too! The guava flavor is unmistakable, so fresh and like nothing you've ever tasted. ($7.40 for a dozen)

Mango Mousse Cake: two layers of white sponge cake alternated with two layers of creamy, so utterly-fresh mango mouse, topped with whipped cream and a gorgeous assortment of fresh fruit. SO delicious! ($35 dollars for a quarter sheet)

Maariquitas: homemade plantain chips, lightly salted and served with a side of Cuban garlic sauce. This is what they serve with their sandwiches (a perfect accompaniment), and they were so good I bought some to bring home. ($2.15 for a large box with side of sauce)
Meat pie/ Pastel de Carne: delicious and crispy puff pastry filled with seasoned ground beef. Kind of reminds me of something we Vietnamese eat, but a different and equally delicious version. ($7.95 for one dozen)
Papa rellenas/ Potato Balls: Mashed potatoes filled with seasoned ground beef, lightly breaded, then fried to a golden crisp. One of their most popular items and definitely one of my favorites! How could you go wrong with deep fried starch and protein? ($35 for 50 balls)
Italian Cheesecake: Thin layers of white sponge cake, soaked with rum, marscapone cheese, and fresh pears. Basically the only kind of cheesecake my sister will eat because it uses marscapone rather than cream cheese, but this was BEYOND delicious! So creamy and sweet, one of my favorites. ($2.50)
Parisian Chocolate Cake: Devil's food chocolate cake, layered and decorated with chocolate whipped cream and finished with chocolate shavings. We bought this one for my godfather, who is a chocoholic. Though I didn't get to try it myself, he did comment on its amazing-ness multiple times! ($2.50)
Tiramisu: Thin layers of white sponge cake (soaked with espresso) and cream cheese mousse. This one I actually did not like too much. I love, love, love tiramisu but this one was just alright, nothing spectacular. ($3.50)
Mango Mousse Cheesecake: New York style cheesecake with a sponge cake bottom and fresh mango cheese filling. This was by far my favorite of ALL, it was amazingly creamy and filled with fresh mango flavor that was so strong! Basically if you love mango, you would die for this. ($2.50)
Opera: Almond sponge cake soaked in coffee, a layer of chocolate ganache, a layer of mocha buttercream, and topped with chocolate. Another one that I did not absolutely love, I'm sure if Opera's are your thing than you would love this, but I just wasn't that much of a fan of the taste. It was beautiful to look at though. ($2.50)
Tres Leches: yellow sponge cake soaked in a three milk sauce topped with toasted meringue. This was so cute but delicious as well. I love a good tres leches, but I don't think that anything can ever top the tres leches from Felix's Continental Cafe!

FOR LUNCH:

The Ropa Vieja: Cuban style shredded beef sandwich with bell peppers, onions, and tomato sauce on Cuban bread. Really delicious, tender shredded meat! I don't know what else to say that can describe this any better. ($6.55)
The Medianoche: The most famous classic Cuban sandwich filled with slow roasted pork, ham, swiss cheese, butter, mayo, mustard, and pickles on a sweet roll. I love myself a good medianoche, like the one I had at Milk, but this one was really exceptional. The melted, gooey cheese and crisp, tangy pickle really did me in for it! ($ 3.65)
The Pan con Bistec: marinated steak with grilled onions, potato sticks, tomatoes and garlic sauce on Cuban bread. This was insane as well, the steak was so incredibly tender and the crispy potato sticks added new depth that was delicious! I have no picture sorry folks! ($6.55)

FFF (Friday Flickr Favorites)

I'm still absolutely loving Abby Try Again! As I was wandering her store, I also found her blog, then meandered my way to her Flickr profile... I absolutely died while looking through her images. There's something about them that's so dreamy! Anyway this FFF came a little late due to extreme exhaustion from Finals week. But yay! I am finally done!

Meander her photostream yourself here.

Or her shop here.

Or her blog here.

You can check out the rest of my favorites here.

Tailored Tuedays

Yummy, pretty and tailored with a bit of unmatched prints thrown in just for good measure!

1. Erickson Beamon "Glenda multistrand necklace" 

2. Marc Jacobs "Brocade pleated sundress"

3. Smythe "Silk embroidered blazer"

4. Oscar de la Renta "Mosacio platform sandals"

5. Chloe "Paraty medium shoulder bag"

all images can be found at net-a-porter.com

The "Other" Spring Roll

The word "spring roll" is usually accompanied by thoughts of rice paper filled with fresh vegetables, herbs, and some kind of meat. The most typical ones we eat at home are filled with stewed pork or fresh baked fish. It wasn't until recently that my mom started to make Bò Bía, a Vietnamese spring roll filled with scrambled eggs, chinese sausage, and dried shrimp. Sounds weird doesn't it? Sort of like a breakfast spring roll burrito, but not. Well no matter how strange, it was delicious nonetheless, and now me and my sister beg my mom to make it on a regular basis. And I also begged her for this recipe! 

Most spring rolls are known to be delicate in flavor and light/ healthy but these must be the bad sheep in the family because they explode in your mouth with intense flavor from the dried shrimp and dipping sauce. They are also much heavier than their goody-two-shoes cousins, making them more of a full meal rather than an appetizer. In conclusion, I LOVE these things!

Vietnamese Shrimp and Sausage Spring Rolls/ Bò Bía

Yields: enough for 4 - 6 people

Printable Recipe

For the spring rolls:

10 eggs, lightly beaten

1 package of Chinese sausage/ Lap Cheung (8 links), sliced

1 cup of small dried shrimp

1 small onion, thinly sliced

3 carrots, peeled and julienned

2 medium jicama, peeled and julienned

3 tbsn. olive oil

iceberg lettuce

fresh mint

1 package of rice paper, banh trang

For the sauce:

3 garlic cloves, roughly chopped

10 tbsn. of hoisin sauce

2 tbsn. peanut butter

4 tbsn. water

1/4 cup of roasted peanuts, chopped

In a medium pan, heat 1 tbsn. of olive oil over medium high. Add the jicama and carrots and cook until tender, about 7 - 9 minutes. Move the vegetables onto a large plate. Using the same pan, heat the other tbsn. of olive oil. Next add the onion, cook for about 3 minutes, then add the dried shrimp. Cook together until onion is tender and flavors are melded, about 5 - 8 more minutes. Remove from pan onto the plate. Next, add the sliced sausage and heat through, letting it get a little crispy. No need to add extra oil for the sausage. Remove from pan onto the plate, side by side with the other ingredients, this way you can make easy spring rolls using an assembly line. Next add the last tbsn. and heat through. Cook the eggs, scrambled style, about 3 - 5 minutes. Set on large plate as well. 

To assemble, fill a large bowl with warm water. Take one sheet of rice paper and submerge into the warm water, then shake off any excess water and lay it on a plate. First lay down some lettuce and mint leaves. You do not want to overstuff your spring roll or else it will just rip apart and become very un-fun to eat. Add about 2 tbsn. of the egg, 4 slices of the sausage, 1 tbsn. of the jicama/ carrot slaw, and 1/2 tbsn. of the shrimp mixture. To roll, first bring the top flap over the filling, tuck in the sides, and roll the whole thing forwards, similar to how you would roll a burrito. Repeat until all fillings are used. Watch the video below to see the details!

In a small saucepan, heat the garlic over medium high until slightly browned. Next add the hoisin sauce and the peanut butter. Stir constantly to make sure they become well combined. Next add the water to dilute the sauce a little. Remove from the heat and mix in the peanuts. The recipe for this sauce varies from person to person as preferences are different, so just add less or more of any ingredient to find a combination that suits you well. Once well combined it is ready to eat with your perfectly rolled spring rolls. Enjoy!

What's in your breakfast?

Breakfast is the most important meal of the day, or so they say. To be honest, I often skip it. Either I wake up to late or am too flustered with getting ready to consider stopping to take a break to fuel myself. I always thought that breakfast was just too darn close to lunch and that eating large meals consecutively after one another was just kind of odd, to say the least. 

John Huck, an L.A. based artist makes me wonder... should I reconsider my line of thought? In his "Breakfast" project, he juxtaposes headshots of people and their breakfast of the day. The result is nothing less than purely fascinating. It's always interesting to observe people in their natural habitat, but what's truly mind-blowing is how a simple snapshot can reveal so much character in a person you've barely known and just seconds ago, first set your eyes upon. 

And what do I eat for breakfast? I'll let you guess which one is mine, and which one is B's:

On the left is Fried Eggs with Chinese sausage and seven grain toast.

On the right is fresh kiwi and mango.

It's as predictable as predictable can be, the girl eats the fruit, while the man stuffs his face with meat. My kitchen has been filled with delectable fruit lately. Kiwis, mangos, oranges, grapes galore and all of them have been so perfectly ripe and fresh! Since I'm not used to eating breakfast in the morning, I try to keep it light. What do you like to eat for breakfast?

Nutella Stuffed French Toast with Maple Whipped Cream

No time for a story, just enough time for some good eats! I never knew French Toast was so, so incredibly easy! Not to mention delicious! Especially this one, since I am a complete sucker for Nutella. But then with bananas too? Oh wait... and maple whipped cream?!?! I've really gone too far with this one, seriously, seriously, seriously delicious. Did I mention that I was serious about this one? Because I am, deadly serious. No sarcasm here. Nope. Just pure Nutella, melt-in-your-mouth explosions of delighful joy.

Nutella Stuffed French Toast with Fresh Bananas and Maple Whipped Cream

Yields: Enough for four

Printable Recipe

3 eggs

1 cup milk

2 tbsn. brown sugar

pinch of salt

1 tsp. cinnamon

1 tsp. nutmeg

1 tsp. vanilla extract

4 tbsn. butter

12 slices of whole wheat bread (or white/ brioche/ challah/ anything will do)

Nutella, amount depends on how much you like 

4 bananas, sliced (optional)

powdered sugar, for topping (optional)

In a medium bowl mix the eggs, milk, sugar, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg and vanilla until well combined. Spread the Nutella onto 6 sliced of the bread, then place the other bread slices on them to make a Nutella sandwich and cut diagonally. Heat a large pan over medium heat. Once hot, drop a tablespoon of butter and wait until melted. Dip the bread into the liquid mixture until coated well on each side (do NOT over soak or else it will become soggy). Drop the sandiwches into the hot pan and cook 4 halves at a time using a tablespoon of butter for each batch. Cook until golden brown, about 3 - 4 minutes on each side. Remove from pan and eat immediately. Top with the fresh bananas and whipped cream.

Maple Whipped Cream

1 cup heavy cream

1/4 cup of maple syrup

1 tsp. vanilla extract

Using a mixer, whip the cream until peaks start to form. While on low speed, slowly add the maple syrup and vanilla. Continue beating until peaks become stiff. Enjoy!

FFF (Friday Flickr Favorites)

Seashores and seascapes, basically what I've been dreaming of ever since Finals week has started. Waiting till they are over, then hauling my ass to the beach! 

You can find the rest of my favorites here.